GROWING POT WAS THE LEAST OF KILLER'S OFFENCES

The tragic death of four RCMP officers at the hands of a violent
psychopathic criminal is a tragedy of immense proportions. However, I fail
to see how these murders are related to the marijuana industry. James
Roszko had a litany of heinous crimes to his credit, but growing pot was
probably the least offensive of them all. From child molestation to taking
pot shots at visitors (why weren't his guns taken away long ago?), this man
was a short-fused individual waiting to explode. If finding the grow-op
hadn't done it, surely the court-ordered seizure of property would have set
him off.

To be sure, where grow-ops offer serious hazards to life and limb with
booby traps, there should be stiff penalties. But for simply growing a
relatively innocuous drug, let's not put people in the same (or worse)
category as pimps, violent offenders or Eron mortgage lenders. For heaven's
sake, pull the police off grow-ops and put them to work on the crimes that
affect us all, such as break and enters, car theft, vandalism and
white-collar crime.

Art Green

West Vancouver