WHAT IS MOTIVATION FOR POT BUSTS?

Dear Editor,

Re: West Coast less 1.6 million joints following major grow-op bust

Police are so desperate to convince the public their
gangster-subsidization policy is working, they have resorted to
inventing wild numbers.

Guess who is most pleased about this eradication policy. The 90 to 95
per cent of growers who will never be caught! This colossal waste of
time and money is not only failing to fix things, it is, in fact,
outrageously counterproductive.

Think about it: if the police busted twice as many grows this year as
last year, they would still only get about 20 per cent of them. One
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 that much more valuable.
Not only is the illegality of pot the very thing that makes growing it
so lucrative, the police are actually subsidizing the entire industry
by busting only a minority of them.

The cops know it, too. They know they are subsidizing criminals
because the evidence to support what I say is widely available.

The police have been lobbying government for decades to keep the war
on certain plants going. They lobby constantly --with our tax dollars,
no less -- and have influence over governments at all levels.

Police also like to tell the public this is somehow interfering with
organized crime or preventing pot from reaching your kids, but
informed people know better. Every year the cops bust more and more
people, and every year organized criminals grow stronger and pot
becomes more widely available.

All this over a medicinal plant that recent science suggests actually
fights cancer.

Is the Canada you want to live in? A country where cops help gangsters
and deprive people of valuable medicine?

Russell Barth,

Nepean, Ontario

Editor's Note: The article referenced first appeared online at
www.westerlynews.ca on Mon., Sept. 21.