POT SMOKERS ARE NOT GOING TO GO AWAY

B.C. Solicitor General Rich Coleman wants tougher penalties for people
running marijuana grow-ops, in the aftermath of the horrific murders of
four RCMP officers at a grow-op in Alberta.

Predictably, Coleman is using the strong public emotion of the moment to
further his dubious war on pot.

Let's examine some of the facts:

Coleman says 41 per cent of pot growers have serious criminal records, and
that the notion of grow-ops as being "mom and pop" operations is a complete
myth. However, these statistics he likes to quote come from police records
of actual busts, and do not reflect the entire industry.

Due to a shortage of resources, police generally concentrate on raiding the
bigger, more commercial grow-ops; I have no doubt that these operations are
indeed run by organized crime. However, there are thousands of smaller
operations that slip under the police's radar because they are too
insignificant. Many of these operations are run by individuals whose only
crime is growing marijuana.

I personally know of seven different individuals or couples growing pot. Of
these, not one has a criminal record, or weapons, or associations with
organized crime. These are the growers that people like myself would prefer
to deal with.

Yes, I am a pot smoker. I am also a full-time professional technician, a
taxpayer, a voter and a compassionate person who makes a valuable
contribution to our society. My only crime is smoking marijuana, and there
are many, many more people like me.

The solicitor general would dearly love to have the public believe that the
entire industry is being run by either the Triads or the Hells Angels.
Criminal organizations are heavily involved in the marijuana trade - when
you criminalize something, the people willing to trade in it will likely be
criminals - but to characterize the entire industry that way is simply not
accurate.

Coleman suggests that grow-ops are bristling with weapons and booby traps,
but Insp. Dave Nelmes of the Vancouver police drug unit says that just
isn't the case. Nelmes says that at the majority of grow-op raids, the
owners simply open the door when police identify themselves.

The loss of the four officers at the hands of one deranged individual is a
great tragedy for the country. My own father and two of my uncles are
former RCMP officers, and my heart goes out to the families of the fallen
men. However, this crime had more to do with a heavily armed and disturbed
individual than it did with the marijuana industry.

At best, it only reinforces why we must completely decriminalize marijuana
now. Pot is easy to grow. If the average smoker could grow some plants at
home, with no risk of prosecution, then why would anyone pay the Hells
Angels for their over-priced product? Decriminalization would put organized
crime out of the pot business overnight.

Pot smokers are not going to go away, and Coleman's war on drugs will fail
as miserably as its American counterpart. We need a new approach that will
keep the harm to society to a minimum, and that approach will be found in
the light of logic and reason, not through capitalizing on the public's grief.

Greg Davis,

Abbotsford