Todays paper is all about the evil violence linked with grow ops. How many times has this happened before? (not very often or at all) Law inforcement and naysayers love oppourtunities like this. The fact is most grow ops are still run by essentially law abiding "mom and Pop" and fly under the radar. The greedy criminal element gets cought more often and so "statistics" are skewed.
Here's a quote from the article posted by purple_squirrel:
"The issue of grow ops is not a ma-and-pa industry as we've been saying for a number of years. They are major, serious threats to our society and they are major, serious threats to the men and women on the front line who have to deal with them."
- RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli
I'm wondering saucy bastard, how do you know most grow ops are run "mom and pop" style. To me it almost sounds like you're defending grow ops (of course not ones that result in bloody shoot outs).
Given saucy's location (BC) - I'd say he's likely coming from personal experiences, as there is a huge number of grow-ops in BC. I have a friend who moved there last year, and 5 of the houses on his street alone are grow-ops.. not big ones.. just people growing for themselves. It's terribly common in "Vansterdam" - so much so that most houses listed for sale are required to mention whether or not there has been a grow-op within the house, because of humidity & other damage it can cause if not properly maintained.
I really don't understand this. The purpose of legalizing pot should not be so anyone over the age of, let's say 18, can get pot whenever (s)he wants.
While I won't comment personally on what the purpose of legalization should be, I do know that in Canada the issue has been raised that police resources could be better utilitzed to capture "real" criminals, people dealing in the more dangerous "class A" drugs, people with guns, theifs, etc.. "Why bother with a couple of shitsticks, when you can get the whole shit-trolly?" right? The cost to taxpayers to keep someone in jail for a 1-5 years for growing a small amount (1-3 plants) or 5-10 years for a larger amount (3+) far outweighs the actual crime. The people that get caught, for the most part are the greedy, money crazy, unsavory characters - huge, obvious 12h spikes in power bills, carelessness, and general size of grow-op play a considerable factor. The other main point that was argued on I believe you mentioned about the medical implications.. this is purely for one of the best treatments possible for terminal illnesses, with proven results, and countless testimony of its healing powers.
Drug busts will continue to occur and eventually more officers will be hurt. Tobacco is legal, yet a huge amount of money is spent every year trying to get people to quit smoking. Who says pot is a harmless drug? I'm sure for every report produced claiming pot has no harmful side effects there's another claming the opposite. Who's right?
Pot is probably one of the, if not the most safe drugs around. It has been tested much longer than anything else sold over the counter. No one has ever died from a direct result of pot (Bruce Lee's original death certificate claimed it was due to marijuana, but was later revealed it was due to interaction with a prescription medication he had been taking, and not just the pot, as previously suspected). People die from cancer (ciggrits) & alcohol poisoning everyday - the only reason alcohol is legal in the states is because prohibition didn't work:
sound familliar at all? holy deja-vu :P
When it comes to smoking, using any drug, or frequent heavy drinking my philosophy is: Why do it? You only have one body and one life so don't pollute it. I think a lame excuse is claiming you do it because you have "the right to."
I'd much rather have the right to do what I want to my own body, as long as I'm not harming others by doing so, than be told what I can & can't do, that just seems like an infringement of my rights, and personal freedoms. Where you say 'pollute', others might choose 'enhance' as a better description - or 'enlighten'. Whatever reason you have for drinking alcohol, apply it to probably 90% of the drug users out there. It makes you feel good.. plain & simple - it's not a question of doing it simply because you can.
Alcohol is a drug too you know, probably one of the most debilitating out there from what I've seen :P - yet you find no problems in polluting your body with it?
