Canada�s drug crime bill brings calls for caution from U.S.

The cons won't get the time to pass the bill, time is running out for them.

Don't know what the problem is? Lock the druggy freaks away who cares for how long. They are the same as pedophiles, rapists and other assorted misfits.

I read this article in the Winnipeg Free Press today, and it was so biased it wasn't even funny.

See the thing is we have the U.S. at the one extreme (too harsh), and Canada at the other (catch and release). Canada needs to toughen up our laws.

And the friggin' article makes it sound "bad" that 1 in 100 Americans is behind bars?

So what? Thats good in my opinion, it points to a country that takes charge, and deals with its criminals, and not the constant catch and release of other western nations.

The USA <b>is</B> too harsh. Legalize marijuana, concentrate on fighting addictive drugs only.

Has the persistence of locking so many people up for minor offenses made the USA....ah fuck it......I'd rather have our drugs and prostitution laws in line with those of Germany/Holland than the USA.

Not sure about Germany, but in Holland, a countrywide smoking ban (covering marijuana, too) will take effect in July 2008, likely degrading the coffee shops to mere selling counters. Last year Holland's health secretary even predicted the end of the Dutch exception. "The image of Holland as extremely tolerant toward drugs is less and less in keeping with reality," Hans Hoogervorst, who stepped down in February, told an international audience of addiction experts. "People are weary of the happy-clappy liberalism of the 1970s." In fact, the conservative ChristenUnie party has proposed shutting down Amsterdam's famous red-light district and converting it into a "second Montmartre," with restaurants and art galleries.

This seems appropriate to me. Catch and release doesn't work but the same idiots call for a handgun ban....they must be on crack.

My biggest problem with this type of legislation is that it does not play out fairly. Who exactly gets to arrest the judges, the lawyers, the cops, the doctors and etc. who indulge in the bud or the coke or what have you. It's almost always the "little guy" that suffers from this type of legislation. Do you honestly think Mr. Harper would ever be arrested if caught puffing weed?

You're right, a good lawyer can change charges from "intent to traffic" to "possession" by just a conversation with the judge. Poor folk can't afford good lawyers, and just as in America, poor folk are more likely to end up in prison.

As for the Holland issue, I guess they finally succumbed to pressure from the European Union. I know Germany and Portugal are generally open towards drugs, and prostitution in Germany is so well developed that sex workers are offered special health clinics.

crack selling lawyers should be given more than a mandatory minimum