POLICE OVERVALUED MARIJUANA

A recent story in this paper about city police busting a
marijuana-growing operation includes another police-issued outrageous
exaggeration of pot plant values.

To say that 10 "starter plants" are worth $1,000 each is much like
saying that a pile of rubber, metal, plastic and glass "is an
automobile." Those plants would need 12-20 weeks of water, light,
fertilizer, and TLC to fully mature, and, even then, each plant is
likely to produce barely a half pound of dried bud. That is $600-$800
wholesale, depending on the quality. At "street prices" -- buying in
one to eight gram packets -- it works out to "$1,000 a plant" but
only because the prohibition on pot drives the prices up.

Not to mention the fact that, by busting this grow, the police just
subsidized every other grower -- the ones they don't catch -- by
sending more business their way.

Remember the Peanuts cartoon? Lucy would always con Charlie Brown
into kicking the football, and he would always fall for it, and
always end up suckered again? That is what the police have been doing
to the media and the public for over 100 years.

Russell Barth,

Educators For Sensible Drug Policy, Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User

Nepean, Ont.