ALBERTA GROW-OP TRAGEDY ABOUT A MADMAN, NOT MARIJUANA

A crazed man opens fire on Mounties on his rural property in northern
Alberta, killing four police officers before turning the gun on himself,
and all of a sudden Canada needs to get tougher on marijuana grow operations?

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.

Based on what has emerged, James Roszko would likely have shot and killed a
police officer for walking onto his property to enforce a speeding ticket fine.

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
- - yet was buried under the blitz last week to blame the deaths on marijuana
grow-ops - 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.