Yep, That'll Discourage Them ...

As the Con$ unroll their next plank in their strategy to expand the prison industrial complex in Canada, we get more insight into how limited the Con$ really are.

Basically, anyone deemed to be "producing" or "trafficking" in drugs face mandatory minimum sentences.

About all that such sentencing laws really do is hamstring judges and force them to incarcerate people without regard for the context and aggravating (or mitigating) factors in the case. Which means, for the most part, that we will accomplish little but growing the population of our prisons to no real benefit.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not sympathetic to drug dealers or any of a dozen other varieties of criminal. However, the Conservative notion of "consequences" is rooted in the protestant notion of guilt and punishment. Sadly, for the most part the people we are talking about simply do not subscribe to that same set of assumptions.

Even more important is to recognize that individual drug dealers or grow op owners are really not the problem. Narcotics will always be sought out by thrill seekers and others who desire to experience "something new". The real problem is that drugs - especially narcotics - are big business. There are reasons that organized crime rings get into outright wars over territory - and it boils down to money.

The dealers, and I suspect, grow op operators, are the ground level functionaries. Although they are a part of the problem, taking out a dealer or two, does little to shut down the higher level business that is organized crime. Stiffer penalties do not deter organized crime rings either - far too much money is at stake. (Anybody else noticed that even when the "head" of a crime ring is caught and convicted, the ring continues on?)

The "small fish" don't matter in terms of crime reduction. Remove their supply lines and puppet masters and they'll fade into the woodwork quite rapidly. Mandatory sentences simply won't make a difference to anybody.

If the Con$ want to make a lasting and meaningful impression on Canada's streets, it must be by finding the legal structures to make it possible for our law enforcement agencies to shut down the big money crime organizations more readily.