KILLINGS CHANGE RULES OF THE GAME

Mountie Massacre a Wake-Up Call to Politicians About Drug
Crimes

The rules of the game have just changed. With the deaths Thursday of
four RCMP officers in the botched bust of a marijuana grow op, the
notion that this part of the drug trade rests in the friendly hands of
stoned good ol' boys who just want to spread a little happiness has
been exposed for the muddy pretence it always was.

Drugs are about money -- big money -- and the marijuana trade is not
some sort of criminality-lite, a mild exception in an otherwise nasty
business.

At time of writing, details were sketchy about how a lone gunman was
able to shoot four police officers dead before committing suicide.

However, it is premature and would be unwise to assume this was an
anomaly, an event out of character for people involved with drugs.

While there is no information about the gunman's connections to
organized crime, that there will be some is a reasonable
speculation.

Gangs need producers, producers need a marketing arm.

Both therefore share responsibility for the drive-by shootings and
other incidents of gang-related violence that plague Canadian cities,
Calgary among them.

And the deaths of these four officers in the line of duty is a
consequence not of a lone crazed gunman.

Rather, they must be laid at the feet of the drug-using culture that
supports a whole criminal infrastructure, built upon greed and
maintained by the threat, and occasional exercise, of brutal violence.

Enough. For too long, we have diminished the dreadful influence of the
marijuana business upon society. The police have been under-resourced
to deal with it, and had to watch courts hand out laughably inadequate
penalties when a conviction has been obtained.

It is time for politicians to get serious about this business, and the
criminals who draw blood profits from it.

To the families of those killed, we express our heartfelt sympathies;
to those who take their place, our keen support.