WHY BUST GROW OPS?

Editor, The News;

I am very surprised to find that our mayor doesn't know how much tax money
is being spent by the Abbotsford Police Department on marijuana grow op
investigations and busts, yet she admits that she is comfortable with these
expenditures! (Re Q. & A. with Mary Reeves, Abbotsford News, April 5.)

I am also curious why the police department can't provide an approximation
of what they are spending on these grow ops investigations!

Of course the real question here is who is setting our community standards,
the police chief by way of manpower dispersal, the police board by way of
governance or the people through the mayor?

I dislike pot or any drugs for that matter, but I wonder if the police
should be targeting grow ops with manpower resources as tight as they are.

I understand the U.S. authorities would like us to spend even more
resources on grow op busts, but until they are prepared to spend more on
gun control in the states and to help stop guns and hard drugs from
crossing into Canada then my opinion will not change: Less targeting of mom
and pop grow ops by Abbotsford Police.

Obviously there will always be some disagreement on policing priorities,
but if given a choice I'd rather decriminalize pot, which would take a lot
of the street value out of it. Then spend more resources on prostitution
and other crime issues in Abbotsford, where I believe organized crime has a
more substantial foothold.

Alan Kidd

Abbotsford