MARIJUANA LAW SHOULD EITHER BE ENFORCED SERIOUSLY OR SCRAPPED

BC and Canada need to make up their minds about how they want to deal with
marijuana-growing operations. As it stands, B.C. is getting a well deserved
reputation as amongst the most lenient jurisdictions in North America when
it comes to prosecuting and punishing pot growers.

The numbers tell the tale. If you are convicted of growing pot in large
enough quantities to attract police attention and arrest, your chances are
one in four of getting probation or a conditional discharge - no jail time
or fine. They're one in two that you'll have to pay a fine, which could be
as low as $500.00 and rarely exceeds $6000.00 - the average is about $2600.00.

That's a lot less than you'd expect to pay in taxes and fees for a
legitimate company - in effect, it's a business licence.

Your chances of actually doing jail time are about on in five, and that's
likely to be 90 days or less , and not more than two years.

With laughable fines and a slim chance of jail time, there's little reason
to stay out of an illegal business that can net you a quarter of a million
dollars a year if you do it right.

There are a lot of reasons why B.C. judges appear to go easy on pot
growers. They may not want to clog B.C.'s courts and jails any more than
they already are, and they clearly don't regard marijuana cultivation as a
serious threat to public health or safety.

Ultimately it's up to the federal authorities to decide how they want to
deal with this: either treat marijuana growing an illegal activity that
deserves deterrent penalties, or take the law off the books. All Ottawa and
the courts are doing right now is wasting a lot of police and justice
system time, money and energy trying to enforce laws that have become, in
practice, meaningless.