JUST DOPEY

The noose is tightening around marijuana grow-ops in residential areas and
every hydroponic growing operation shut down is one neighbourhood a little
safer.

With persistence by police, reporting by neighbours and meaningful
penalties from judges, these scourges may be eliminated from our streets.
As long as huge profits can be reaped, grow-ops will never be eliminated
but, slowly and methodically, they are being routed from where they cause
the most harm.

They are a blight. Grow-ops affect the health of those foolish enough to
live in the same house as pesticide-laced crops and can put everyone living
nearby at risk. Fire is the biggest threat, not only to nearby residences
but to the entire city because of the possibility of resources stretched
too thin.

They are a magnet for crime. It's easier to steal the crop and the money
than to grow it, and even if armed invasions are rare, they are too common.

Even the inconveniences and irritations brought by grow-ops - unsightly
premises, the loss of telephone and power when utility poles go up in
flames, and traffic congestion and confusion when the bust takes place.

To many, marijuana is a more benign drug than alcohol or tobacco and
efforts to eliminate grow-ops are criticized as infringement of choice. It
is an interesting argument but irrelevant to the need at hand to clear out
these unwanted home-based criminal businesses from where people live.

The police are doing a sterling job of living up to the public expectation
and trying to remove this scourge from our community.

We wait for judges to recognize that producing great quantities of
marijuana is distinctive from adults choosing to smoke a joint. So far,
both are given almost equal weight, and that is wrong.