DRUG DEALERS ARE ESSENTIALLY HITMEN PAID BY OWN VICTIMS

Editor, The Record:

When I read of Justice Joyce's decision to acquit the operators of a local
grow-op based on a technicality (Local couple acquitted by Justice Joyce,
March 3 edition), I was astonished, but my reaction grew even stronger when
I heard about the four police officers killed in the Alberta grow-op raid.

It is sometimes too easy to have 20/20 hindsight and to pick on our judges,
but this is one time when I simply cannot begin to understand the
perspective of our most trusted and supposedly wise officials.

One could make a case there are no more heinous crimes than the production
and sale of illicit drugs, because such criminals are guilty of killing our
children and brethren slowly, cruelly and certainly.

Worst of all, they do so merely for profit. They are, essentially, hitmen
who are paid by their own victims. Why then are our courts so blithely
out-of-touch with the strong sentiments of their communities?

Even as a person who strongly supports civil liberties I must ask, in what
way do decisions such as the one by Justice Joyce serve us? Sadly, I can
think of none.

I am forced to conclude that the police officers who died in the hope of
ending such crimes did so in vain. It is hard to imagine a greater tragedy.

Paul Horn

Mission