GROW-OPS GETTING VIOLENT

Last week two men were shot multiple times in what police believe were
robberies at marijuana grow operations and there was an unsuccessful
"grow rip" where criminals were armed with guns. Recently three
children were seized by the Ministry of Children and Family
Development because they were living in a home with a grow-op in it.

Last year Ridge Meadows RCMP busted 73 grow-ops and Superintendent
Dave Walsh told Maple Ridge council that number may be only 10 per
cent of the grow-ops that exist in the communities.

Marijuana is an extremely lucrative drug for organized crime groups
and grow-ops are bringing a new level of violence to various
communities, even formerly quiet suburbs like Maple Ridge and Pitt
Meadows.Now that people are getting shot multiple times in bucolic
settings like Whonnock it raises the question: What should we do about
marijuana?

We could build more jails and lock more people up after imposing stiff
mandatory sentences for people involved in grow-ops. However, with the
high rate of marijuana use in society it's unlikely demand is going to
go down and criminals will always be happy to meet that demand because
there's such a profit to be made. Alcohol prohibition didn't prevent
people from drinking. It just increased violence and profits for gangsters.

As an indication of how many people smoke pot you just have to check
out the recent photos of the thousands of people who showed up at an
annual '420' rally on April 20 in Toronto and Vancouver.

Meanwhile, legalization and decriminalization are controversial and we
seem afraid to go there as a society due to fear of retaliation from
our largest trading partner and the fear of marijuana being a "gateway
drug" into harder drug use.

Interestingly, in a recent Angus Reid poll six out of ten people
supported legalizing marijuana possession but 70 per cent wanted
mandatory prison sentences for drug dealers and marijuana grow operators.

Regardless of where people stand on legalization versus tougher
sentences it's safe to say the status quo is not a success.When guns
are being used to guard grow ops and people breaking into grow-ops are
also armed with guns it could be only a matter of time before innocent
civilians get hurt.