What is the penalty for growing more than 4 plants in Ontario?

What is the penalty for growing more than 4 plants in Ontario?

Possessing a budding or flowering plant in public You can move up to 4 plants in a public place – but if any of them are budding or flowering, it becomes a crime. Adults could face up to 5 years less a day in prison.

How do you beat a trafficking charge?

Beating drug trafficking charges can take many forms based on the facts of a specific case. That said, the most common defenses include Constitutional challenges to evidence, discrediting of State witnesses and uncovering wiretap issues, where applicable.

What factors does a judge consider when determining sentencing?

When deciding on a sentence, the judge or magistrate will consider things like:

• your age.
• the seriousness of the crime.
• if you have a criminal record.
• if you pleaded guilty or not guilty.

How effective is mandatory sentencing?

NSW Bar Association president Phillip Boulten SC says: “There’s no evidence at all that mandatory sentencing ever decreases the amount of crime that’s committed and it has the ability to act unfairly on vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.”

Who decides mandatory sentencing?

At sentencing, judges must determine if the defendant was convicted of a quantity of drugs that triggers a mandatory minimum penalty and if so, impose that sentence regardless of the sentencing guidelines. There are only two ways to avoid a mandatory minimum sentence.

Do judges have to follow sentencing guidelines?

Judges also use the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual. As its name suggests, the manual guides judges toward a sentence based on the facts that led to the conviction. Unlike mandatory minimums, the sentencing guidelines are advisory, not mandatory.

Why are mandatory minimums bad?

Mandatory minimum sentences reduce the sentencing discretion of judges, create racial disparities, and give prosecutors too much leverage, which they can use to strong-arm defendants out of their constitutional rights and force them to plead to harsh sentences.

Why do mandatory minimums exist?

Simply put, anyone convicted of a crime under a “mandatory minimum” gets at least that sentence. The goal of these laws when they were developed was to promote uniformity; it doesn’t matter how strict or lenient your judge is, as the law and the law alone determines the sentence you receive.

Are mandatory minimums still a thing?

Mandatory Minimum Sentences Decline, Sentencing Commission Says. The number of federal prison inmates convicted under mandatory minimum laws decreased by 14 percent from 2010 to 2016, although they still make up more than half of all federal inmates, according to a new report by the United States Sentencing Commission.