https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/414/toughtalk.shtml

Canadian Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper is hoping talking tough on drugs will win his party votes in next month's national elections. While the Conservatives have traditionally advocated a harsher drug policy, Harper put the issue front and center in a Vancouver area appearance Saturday, saying the ruling Liberals had sent dangerous mixed messages with their effort to decriminalize marijuana and that tougher drug laws would protect Canadian "values"

"A Conservative government will not reintroduce the Liberal plan to decriminalize the possession of marijuana, and we will never endorse the NDP [New Democratic Party] idea of legalizing it outright," Harper told reporters. "I don't think it's a coincidence that we have seen a rapid expansion of the drug trade since this government first tabled its marijuana decriminalization legislation. It sent a signal to society, to police officers and to the drug industry that they were simply not serious about enforcing drug laws. Some people want to deal with the problem by simply surrendering."

Harper's Conservatives would deal with the problem by creating a two-year mandatory minimum sentence for distribution of hard drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin, as well as the same two-year sentence for trafficking large amounts of marijuana. Under current Canadian law, any drug trafficking offense is punishable by up to seven years in prison, but few small-time drug dealers or even fairly big-time marijuana growers or traffickers actually serve significant time.

Marijuana growers, crack dealers, and meth cooks "have to know that if they are caught, they will not get a slap on the wrist. They will go to prison," Harper told a suburban Burnaby crowd. "It is a serious crime, and they will do serious time."

The Conservatives would also eliminate conditional sentences such as house arrest and increase fines for growing or trafficking drugs. In his comments Saturday, Harper also suggested a Conservative drug policy would not include funding innovative harm reduction programs like the Insite safe injection site and the NAOMI heroin maintenance program. "We as a government will not use taxpayers' money to fund drug use," Harper said. "That is not the strategy we will pursue."

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