NDP Response / Position on S-10 - NDP Spokesperson for Drug Policy Libby Davies

Thanks for your email outlining your opposition to Bill S-10, an Act to amend the Controlled Drug and Substances Act.

 

I share your concerns and have been working at every turn to stop this failed, George Bush style war-on-drugs Bill that proposes mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes.

My NDP colleagues and I voted a resounding NO when this Bill was introduced in the House as Bill C-15, but it was passed with the support of the Liberal Party. Now we have a second chance to stop this wrong-headed and costly legislation.

 

The Conservative Government knows that mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes don’t work. After weeks of debate, testimony and studies delivered by extraordinary expert witnesses at a Parliamentary Justice Committee on the issue, the evidence was clear that mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes do not work.

 

Organizations like the John Howard Society, the Canadian Bar Association and Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network all warned that these sentences mostly target low-level drug users and street dealers, and not the drug-lords and king-pins that the Conservatives have promised to go after.

 

Canada spends 73% of its drug policy budget on enforcement for what is essentially a public health issue. I will continue to push for the proven four pillar approach to drug use – including enforcement, but with real resources going to prevention, treatment and harm reduction. The Conservatives’ iron fisted approach that criminalizes drug users is taking Canada in the wrong direction.

 

Sincerely,

 

Libby Davies, MP Vancouver East

NDP Spokesperson for Drug Policy