Unlike for other criminal offences, drug offence sentencing is really all over the map - literally, and figuratively! Sentences may be much higher in northern, remote and rural locations than they are in urban areas. And sentencing is also very variable for the same offences charged according type of drug and drug weight.
When I started at Old City Hall in Toronto as a Federal Crown drug prosecutor, our sentencing mandate for simple possession was pretty straight forward: discharges for marijuana, fines for cocaine, and jail for heroin. Trafficking and PforP merited much harsher punishments, but still laddered up in severity through the same three drugs.
Things are a bit more complicated now with the popularity of synthetic drugs, and a host of mandatory minimum sentencing provisions having been introduced into the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. But for the majority of drug offences there remains no mandatory minimum - just a maximum. Those drug sentence maximums tend to be brutally high. As in, seven years imprisonment for simple possession high. But worry not, there are many things you can do to get a "good deal" on your sentence for a drug offence. These principles also work for non-drug criminal offences.
1. Plead Guilty. As a trial lawyer, I never like to overly encourage clients to plead guilty. I can almost always find a plausible defence to present at trial. But if you are convicted after trial, your sentence might be higher than if you pleaded guilty at a much earlier date. Sometimes, your sentence might be a lot higher (like double or triple the time). Sometimes, it won't be higher at all. But if you want to get things over with, and really did do what they claim you did (this is an important point, because lawyers can't ethically assist innocent people in pleading guilty - we MUST take those cases to trial), then a guilty plea will usually get you a better sentence deal.
2. Negotiate with the Prosecutor. Unfortunately, this is practically impossible to do if you're self-represented because prosecutors are afraid of you blurting out things to them that might later make them witnesses in your case. However, if you can afford to hire a lawyer, or get a legal aid certificate, or can take advantage of friendly neighbourhood duty counsel, then having that lawyer do some sentencing negotiations for you will usually pay off.
Negotiations involve the defence lawyer demonstrating to the prosecutor through other precedent setting cases, and your own personal circumstances, that you deserve a good deal (relatively speaking) on your sentence. Sometimes those negotiations will involve you pleading guilty in exchange for the prosecutor dropping charges against someone else (like your spouse), or in exchange for the dropping of some of the charges against you, or in exchange for you waiving your rights to things seized.
3. Hold a Judicial Pre-Trial. This is another one you'll need a lawyer to do for you, but holding what's known as a JPT is a great way to test drive a possible sentence in front of a judge. Because the ultimate sentence is left to the judge, and not the prosecutor, the JPT judge might actually offer you a much better deal than the prosecutor. Conversely, if the prosecutor has already offered you a good deal, you need to know if the judge will accept that deal. Judges "jumping" joint Crown-defence submissions on sentence after guilty plea is rare, but it happens. You don't want it to happen to you.
4. Perform Community Service and Charitable Giving Up Front. While sometimes community services and donations can be part of a sentence, you'll usually get bigger bang for your buck in performing community acts up front before you ever go before a judge for sentencing. It will impress the judge that you did so of your own free will, without any guaranteed payoff.
Performing community service of between 20 and 50 hours, and charitable giving of between $300 and $1000 dollars, will be the usual sweet spot range to aim for. For community service, make sure it is for a recognized charity or non-profit that is willing to give you a written record of your time there. What sort of organization it is can depend on where your own interests lie. For donations, make sure they are to registered charities. But usually you'll get to pick the one you like.
5. Provide Assistance to Police. This is always a touchy subject, as there can be serous risks to your personal safety in providing information to police on other criminal activity. Plus, unless you've got some very valuable information to offer, they're unlikely to sign any kind of assistance or immunity agreement with you (which only high level prosecutors can approve).
With most assistance to police, you're taking a shot in the dark, hoping the police will put in the good word for you with the prosecutor, and that it will reduce (but not eliminate) your sentence. It's also hard to gage at the end of the day if your assistance got your a good deal, or if it was through employing the first four techniques of plea, negotiation, JPT and community giving that the deal came about.
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