Mandatory Jail Sentence for Growing Five Pot Plants

[bloodyminded]

Yes, Ontario started to recover from Bob Rae disaster. Harris paid half of Rae's debt off but now McGuinty stalled it again.

Exactly. The NDP are resonsible for "almost ruin[ing] our society." ("Our society" being Canada, by the way, not Ontario.)

I encourage the both of you to continue making this sober argument.

[Smallc]

Ever been 'educated' in a public school?

Yes. You?

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20101207/canadian-education-oecd-101207/

[Evening Star]

Yeah, I didn't think I would ever say this before but I appreciate my high school education so much more now, looking back. Rote learning, memorization, and even respect for authority are all valuable skills and educational tools, no doubt, but by no means is that all that Canadian public schools do. There was plenty of discussion and topical debate as well as group work and serious creative projects in my education.

[Evening Star]

I would be interested in learning what the countries who are beating us are doing.

[maple_leafs182]

Not that I really hate pot .. I just dispise those that replace beautiful reality with some artifically induced one..kind of loke spitting in the face of God and being ungrateful for your natural state. Creational use is NOT good - re-creational use is tolerable..In other words - nothing wrong with having fun some times but not all the time. Like the cave man who finds ferented berries in the crack of a rock - one might drink and move on - the other might drink and return over and over again till his health was gone..

I'm sure god doesn't mind. If you look back to the late 60's early 70's when all the hippies were getting stoned saying give peace and love a chance, I'm sure god was happy to see his/her children coming together. Maybe god put some drugs here to help facilitate our evolution.

Now you are correct that the conservatives are authoritarian and advocate the warfare / police state. Politics is a little more complicated than the simple idea of left and right. Conservatism is not capitalism. I am not an advocate of the establishment right, I advocate for the private ownership of the means of production, for the freedom of everyone in our society, I couldn`t care less about elections and which politician lies slightly less than the rest. I care about freedom. I care about liberty.

Well if you look at Ron Paul who is conservative, he wan't to end the wars, he advocates capitalism.

[Saipan]

If you look back to the late 60's early 70's when all the hippies were getting stoned saying give peace and love a chance, I'm sure god was happy to see his/her children coming together. Maybe god put some drugs here to help facilitate our evolution.

And that is when homicide rate went way up.

[Bryan]

I don't see what the problem is with a 5 plant threshold. That's a lot of pot, plenty for any reasonable personal use. The reason for this kind of specificity, IMO, is to make it easier to make sure something sticks when large scale criminal organizations are brought up on charges.

[DrGreenthumb]

I don't see what the problem is with a 5 plant threshold. That's a lot of pot, plenty for any reasonable personal use. The reason for this kind of specificity, IMO, is to make it easier to make sure something sticks when large scale criminal organizations are brought up on charges.

A 5 plant threshold is not a lot of pot, especially when you consider that it takes 3-4 months for them to go from seed to smokeable form. 20 plants would be reasonable, considering there is already precedent for that being an acceptable ammount for personal use. The average plant count approved for medical users under the MMAD is 25 plants. More sensible would be limiting the ammount of electricity that can be dedicated to indoor growing. The maximum that can be produced per 1000 W of light, under perfect conditions is about 1.25 lbs per 75 days. The average grower would produce considerably less than that.

[AngusThermopyle]

I don't think the amount of plants is the problem here. The problem appears to be the mandatory sentencing. As we've just been told recently mandatory sentences are un-Canadian and also flirt with Charter violations.

[DrGreenthumb]

And yet the biggest opponents of the war on drugs, libertarians, are also the biggest advocates of capitalism. I care about freedom. I care about liberty.

I consider myself a social libertarian. I believe in personal freedom above all. The problem is a vote for the Libertarian party is as wasted as a vote for the greens. Too many libertarians hold their nose and vote for Harper's party which makes me lose all respect for them. Currently the NDP is the party that most often stands up against authoritarianism, at least among the parties with electable members. The drug war is the cause of the great majority of civil liberties violations, so electing an NDP government that would end the drug war is the best strategic vote for freedom. The Conservative party with its punishment fetish, authoritarian bent, and plans to expand the use of the prison system to punish people for their personal lifestyle choices is the worst choice. A non-punitive approach to cannabis policy is right in the NDP platform which can be viewed at ndp.ca. The vast majority of NDP members support ending the drug war and that is evident at convention where all resolutions to that effect recieve almost unanimous support.

[DrGreenthumb]

I don't think the amount of plants is the problem here. The problem appears to be the mandatory sentencing. As we've just been told recently mandatory sentences are un-Canadian and also flirt with Charter violations.

Exactly! Every case is different and the judge should have the freedom to weigh the evidence and give a sentence he or she feels is appropriate. S-10 even punishes medical users because there is nothing in the MMAD that allows them to create edibles or concentrates that allow them to rely less on smoking. The stupid Conservative law madates mandaTORY sentence of 9 months for creating a single pot cookie or brownie, because making cannabutter, hash or oil is not allowed under the exemption system. Also the vast majority of medical users do not have an MMAD exemption, because they are nearly impossible to qualify for. Doctors will gladly write a script for sythetic cannabis in pill form, but are very reluctant to sign an MMAD application. They would rather prescibe dangerous addictive sythetic opiates like Oxy than help their patients access a relatively harmless non-addictive medicine in its natural form.

[Saipan]

Exactly! Every case is different and the judge should have the freedom to weigh the evidence and give a sentence he or she feels is appropriate.

Unfortunately they don't, so we have many repeat offenders. Even repeat murderers.

Edited December 8, 2010 by Saipan