Freedom Flyer June 1998 Cover

Freedom Flyer 33

the official newsletter of the
Freedom Party of Ontario

June 1998




GOVERNMENT OBLIGATED TO CRIMINALIZE DRUGS, SAYS MINISTER OF JUSTICE

OTTAWA (September 30, 1997) - In a two-page letter responding to Fp Elgin representative Ray Monteith (See last issue, Freedom Flyer), Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Anne McLellan made it clear that "The Government does not have any plans to decriminalize drug use."

McLellan was addressing Monteith's May 23, 1997 letter to Allan Rock, the former Minister of Justice who is now Minister of Health. (See Freedom brief, elsewhere in this issue.) Attached to Monteith's letter was a copy of his essay, Drugs Should Be Legalized," which has previously been published in Consent #27.

"Allowing easier access to the drug might put Canada in contravention of international agreements to which we are a party," wrote McLellan. "The Single Convention, for instance, obliges us to maintain stringent domestic control over certain drugs, such as cannabis and cocaine. In particular, we must treat possession, sale, cultivation and importing activities as punishable offences.

"Finally," she concluded, "decriminalizing drugs would likely meet with considerable opposition from the public."

Nevertheless, McLellan cited the government's recent passage of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act which has introduced a "new offence for possessing only small amounts of these products."

"This means that the offender will not be charged with an offence which carries a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment," she explained, "no matter how much of the drug was in the individual's possession. The new offence is punishable by a maximum fine of $1000 or up to six months imprisonment, or both."

While we are left scratching our heads trying to reconcile whether the new offence applies to those possessing "only small amounts" of drugs, or to anyone "no matter how much" is in possession, it is clear that the change in law represents a changing attitude in Ottawa.




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