POLICE SHOOTINGS ABOUT A MADMAN, NOT MARIJUANA

Make no mistake: the tragedy in Alberta is about a mentally unstable
man with a known hatred of police, armed with a high-powered weapon
and a thirst for destruction. It is not about marijuana grow operations.

It probably doesn't matter if there were marijuana plants growing on
his property, or tulips and roses. It just happens that - in this
instance - it is the illegality of marijuana that had the Mounties
searching the property. In this instance, the law deeming marijuana as
contraband prompted police to investigate and enforce - and led to
their deaths.

James Roszko was a 46-year-old recluse who hated almost
everyone.

His own father called him a "wicked devil." In 1999, he was charged
with shooting at two people who entered his property. In 1993, he was
charged with assault and pointing a firearm, among other charges,
following a confrontation with a school trustee. And he was scheduled
to appear in court next month to face charges in connection with
damage to vehicles from a spike belt he liked to lay across his
driveway to discourage visitors.

Those four police officers died because Roszko decided to kill them.
They did not die because of marijuana grow operations, which makes the
ensuing rush to call for a major crackdown on grow operations - from
the president of the B.C. Federation of Police Officers, to Solicitor
General Rich Coleman, to RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli - all
the more ridiculous.

Stiffer penalties for growing marijuana would not have prevented the
deaths.

Repercussions are an afterthought to a man mad enough to murder four
other men before killing himself. The more salient question that needs
answering is how and why a man with a history of being charged with
weapons offences and well known in the community as being dangerous
had in his possession a rapid-fire autocarbine assault-style rifle.