ALBERTA TRAGEDY IS 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 sent Mounties back to 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
Abbotsford Police Det. Don Mckenzie as president of the B.C. Federation of
Police Officers, to Solicitor General Rich Coleman, to RCMP Commissioner
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 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 auto
carbine assault-style rifle.