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We only need to go south of the border and see a nation that enacted mandatory minimums related to drug offenses from the mid-1980s on. It didn’t reduce violence and drug use. So here we are saying: We’re going to do this here.

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If passed into law, Bill C-15 would, among its other provisions, throw people caught with one marijuana plant into the slammer for a minimum of six months. If growing a single plant is done on a property that belongs to another person or in an area where it may present a hazard to children, minimum jail time is nine months.

Worse, the bill seeks to increase the maximum penalty for this particular offence to 14 years.

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I write to you today with bad news. Bill C-15, mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses including marijuana passed the House of Commons 195/54. The bill was pushed through by the Conservative Party with the support of the Liberals. The Conservatives blatantly ignored all evidence and expert testimony and instead relied on talking points and ideology; Karl Rove and George W Bush would be proud, Canadians would be disgusted. The Conservatives were pressed by every party to provide a single piece of evidence in support of C-15, the Conservatives could not provide a singly study.

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Fortunately, we here in California are headed in the opposite direction.