Canada's Conservative minority government hopes the third time is the charm for its controversial measure to increase sentences for marijuana cultivation and introduce mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses.
In a strange twist, police say that evidence taken from a B.C. marijuana grow-op famous for its tame bears was stolen from an RCMP detachment and later discovered at a home filled with weapons and explosives.
CANNABIS CULTURE - There is a perfectly logical – if disgraceful – reason why Canadian Treasury President Stockwell Day (a Conservative MP) cited “unreported crimes” as the reason for spending $9B on the building of more prisons.
CANNABIS CULTURE - Why spend thousands of dollars on a complex grow-op security system when nature has already provided the perfect sentinel? Police in B.C. have raided an outdoor grow apparently patrolled and guarded by black bears.
Canada’s $10 billion campaign to put more people in prison for longer periods of time will not make this country safer and may backfire by creating a larger criminal underclass, corrections critics warn.