POT PARANOIA

These days it's become pretty much a given that when we publish a story
about the police raiding an illegal marijuana grow operation, we get
letters to the editor.

Writers invariably take the oportunity to express their dismay over what
they perceive as an injustice of the grandest proportions - the persecution
of citizens who break laws the letter writers feel should be abolished. But
they also go further. They suggest that there is some kind of conspiracy
between government, the police and news organizations designed to paint the
growers of marijuana as people to be reviled by society.

Let's be clear.

We have previously, in this space, applauded the senate's finding that
marijuana law should be repealed.

But that's far different from defending operators of illegal grow
operations. These people aren't crusaders fighting unjust laws. They are
criminals. They are not to be held up as heroes and they certainly aren't
being persecuted. They are a blight on society, breaking any number of
laws, such as theft of hydro-electricity and weapons offences, to name a
couple possibilities, as they go to any means to cultivate their cash crop.

For those of you who would applaud the decriminalization of marijuana and
campaign to that end be assured that one day government and society will be
ready for that next step. But until then, do yourselves a favour and avoid
from defending or aligning yourself with those who flout the law purely for
their own gain. This misguided allegiance can only hurt your cause.