POT TURNS AN UGLY LEAF

This country - B.C. in particular - has gone to pot. And that is an
increasingly worrisome fact.

Less than a generation ago, marijuana was virtually a non-issue for most
people. Thinking about it was optional.

If you wanted to use it, you could buy low-grade local stuff from fairly
mellow dudes who peddled little $10 baggies, which yielded a mild buzz and
a raw throat.

Today, B.C. bud is mega-potent, worth more than $10,000 a pound, and is
controlled by vicious thugs in organized crime gangs which have fingers in
high levels of government. Now, marijuana generates somewhere between $4
billion and $7 billion (US) annually in profits in B.C., and employs
100,000 people or more (who don't pay taxes). The pot trade in B.C. has
become bigger than the forest and mining industries combined, with its grow
factories invading every neighbourhood.

Now, whether you want to or not, you have to think about the pot issue,
because it may come crashing through your front door. Literally.

It did just that last Friday morning for three innocent homeowners, who
became the latest victims of a new and entirely unsettling trend in the
marijuana business.

It's called a "grow rip." Locate a grow op, break down the door, wave a gun
around, beat up the occupants, and snatch the dope and any cash lying around.

There have been 13 rips in the past 30 days in Surrey.

Like most other instances of criminals preying upon each other, this would
be worthy of little attention or concern on the part of the average citizen.

Except the major hitch in a rip is the first step - locating the grow op.
It seems the rippers aren't too good at getting the right house. Maybe they
have bad information. Maybe the grow was moved. Maybe it was busted by
police, and the home reoccupied by an innocent family. Maybe that's you.

And one night it happens. The rippers smash through the back door. They're
violent. They're angry when they don't find what they want. If you are
lucky, they leave without doing physical harm. Or maybe not. An elderly man
was shot during a rip last week.

In any case, your sense of personal security has been violated - ripped to
shreds. You and your children will be emotionally traumatized for years,
perhaps forever.

And there is nothing you can do to prevent this.

Actually, that's not entirely true. We can do something. We can create a
public protest of unprecedented volume and intensity. We can demand that
Ottawa deal with the marijuana issue, decisively.

And to do that, we must finally get past our stubborn naivete and ideology,
and admit that all the cops, courts and prisons in the nation will not
bring down an illegal industry worth more than the entire economies of some
countries.

On pure principle I may not like it, but I'd far prefer to educate my child
on why pot is legal despite warnings about its use, than try to exorcise
the demons left behind after a home invasion - over a damned plant.