GROW-OP BUSTS 'OUTRAGEOUSLY COUNTERPRODUCTIVE'

To the editor:

Re: Green Team Busts Up Gang Drug Profits, April 8 Capital News.

"Asked if he thought the Green Team had made an impact on the number
of marijuana grow operations in the area, Forgues relied, 'this is at
least a temporary dent.'"

What balderdash! This doesn't even scuff the dust or scratch the
paint, let alone make a "dent."

The amount of pot they have confiscated is much like removing a glass
of water from a lake. Sure, technically there is less water
available, but all it does is make the water left in the lake more valuable.

Every time the cops tear out one grow, they make the 90 to 95 per
cent of grows they never catch all that much more valuable. In this
way, the police are subsidizing the gangsters that they don't catch.

They know this too, but they keep doing it because it tricks the
media and public into thinking that they are actually doing something
constructive, when in fact, their actions are outrageously counterproductive.

The war on certain drugs was never meant to be won, it was meant to
be continuous. It was designed to reduce the civil rights and
liberties of the general population, accustom them to an ongoing and
ever-growing police and military presence in their daily lives, drain
taxpayers' dollars, and keep lawyers rich, cops busy and jails full.

You see, police don't want the 'war' on certain drugs to ever end,
because it gives them all the leverage they need to harass the young,
the poor and people with non-regulation hairstyles. It makes their
job relevant and never-ending. Prohibition is a growth industry-as
big a cash cow for police and lawyers and jailers as it is for
gangsters. They are two sides of the same coin.

Russell Barth,

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis, www.paidoc.org

Napean, Ont.