More mandatory minimums for drugs, more jail time for women

You may have received the message in the mail. With a stark photo of a needle next to an empty swing in a playground, the Tories play on fear. Their message seems simple and tempting. Getting tough is the way to deal with drugs.

Bill C-15 [7] is their latest incarnation of this Tough on Crime approach. One of the main things in Bill C-15 is more mandatory minimums for possessing drugs, including growing as few as 5 marijuana plants.

Backed with a moral and ideological agenda, the reality of these get tough approaches has a particularly harsh impact on women.

To help us explore Bill-C15 and the this kind of drug policy has on women Stark Raven speaks with Susan Boyd [8].

Susan is a activist, researcher and writer on drug policy. She is a professor at the University of Victoria with a special interest on the gendered implications of drug policy.

In response to the Harper governments tough on crime measures, Susan wrote a letter a week for 52 weeks to Stephen Harper and documented them at www.educatingharper.com [9].

Comments