GROW-OP BUSTS NOT HELPING SITUATION

(Re: "Big bust nets $6M worth of pot" in the June 27 edition of the Examiner)

The people happiest about this bust are the 90-95 per cent of growers
who will never be caught.

Think about that. If the police busted twice as many grows every
year, they would still only get about 20 per cent of them. A fifth.
Probably less.

And every time they bust one grow -- indoor, outdoor, small, or big
- -all they do is make the ones they don't catch more valuable.

Not only is the illegality of pot the very thing that makes growing
it so lucrative, the police are subsidizing the entire industry by
busting a minority of them.

That's right, the police are subsidizing the gangsters, and they know
it. They know it because the math and history are widely available
and simple enough for even the dullest 10- year-old to understand.

And while kids and women are still missing, and child porn runs
rampant, the cops are wasting a lot of time and money on this
outrageously counterproductive policy. The whole thing makes me
wonder just which side of the law these guys are really on.

And don't tell me the cops don't make the laws. The police have been
lobbying government for decades to keep the 'War On Certain Drugs'
going. They have way too much influence over our governments -- at all levels.

Is this the Canada you want to live in, a country where cops help
gangsters and deprive people of medicine? Because that is the Canada
you live in now.

Russell Barth

Federally licensed medical marijuana user Nepean