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Darrell Rankin, Winnipeg Center |
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 Bill C-26 is a bill tabled by the Conservative government that received its first reading in February of 2008. It proposes mandatory minimum sentences for the production and trafficking of various controlled substances, including cannabis, methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin. These minimums begin at six months for production of 1-200 cannabis plants and extend up to three years for offenses involving heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines. The bill has now received two readings and was before the justice committee prior to the election call. How would you vote on Bill C-26 if it were to come before the House for a final reading?
- Opposed. I would vote against the Bill because it continues the criminalization of people who possess cannabis. The Communist Party position is to end criminalization for such possession. We do not have a position on the other drugs. Generally, we are against stiffer sentences as a means to change behaviour.
Are you in favour of the continued operation of Insite, Vancouver’s safe injection facility?
- Yes. Most medical authorities support the continued operation of the world-renowned Insite's safe injection program, and that is who we should be listening to.
In your opinion, the possession of marijuana for recreational use should (choose one):
a. remain criminalized b. be decriminalized c. be legalized
- Be decriminalized. All drugs should be legally controlled. For example, a large number of laws restrict the use of alcohol.
What steps should the government take to help those for whom illegal drug use has become a problem?
- Addictive behavior is a huge drain on society and drugs (including alcohol) are only one form. Gambling, eating, sex and gaming are others. The resources to study, prevent, and treat addictions are clearly inadequate. Prevention is a crucial element, and probably the best immediate investment. But without knowing the full extent of the problem, such as who is most affected and why, research studying the effectiveness of various preventions and treatments would be misspent.
- Our view as Marxists is that capitalism creates psychological alienation as a means of coping with the alienation of labour or the exploitation of labour. Euphoria created through drugs is often used to escape the anti-social, antagonistic realities of capitalism.
- Thus drugs are not a solution to end capitalism, but only escapism and in the final analysis, accommodation to the system. Thus the connection of U.S. imperialism to drug use in major areas of conflict - Vietnam, Colombia, Afghanistan, the Serbian province of Kosovo, and so on, as a mechanism to prop up the system.
- Ultimately, in a classless or communist society alienation will cease to exist altogether, through the labour process or psychologically. There will be less and less purpose for people to escape reality. The most important step for the government today is to recognize that drug addiction is an illness, not a crime.
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