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For What?
March 4th, 2005 General

Today, as most have you have probably read, 4 RCMP officers were shot and killed in Alberta at the site of a marijuana grow-op. Obviously, this is tremendously sad for both the families of those that were killed, the community, and the police force at large.

But I think that what disturbs me most about all this is that in a very real sense, the deaths were senseless. I mean, all murder’s really are, and these were people that were effectively guarding, not storming, the facility. But I like looking at root causes, and like asking big questions, and I think that this requires that we should: the only reason that these people were killed today is because Canada maintains a prohibition on marijuana and forces its sale and distribution to criminal elements. Let’s face it: lots of people smoke pot, and that the current laws against are notable only for how spectacularly they fail. This is why the government is looking to decriminalize possession, this is the same sort of thing that killed the prohibition of alcohol in the eariler part of the 20th century.

So there is going to be lot’s of talk about drugs and the drug trade in Canada over the next couple of days. I’m going to make the extremely bold assertion that it will largely call for tougher penalties for those that deal in the trade. I actually don’t mind punishing those invovled in organized crime (because that is who we are dealing with) harshly, but I also know that this hardly is stopping the people that make the big bucks. Wouldn’t it be that much better if we didn’t have to worry about pot grow-ops in the middle of no where? Wouldn’t it be better if we could have firmer controls on how a product that is used by an indordinate amount of youg people is produced? Wouldn’t it be better if the government could generate revenue on the sale of it all? The ban achieves none of this, and encourages real criminal endeavours like we have seen today.

Read the Comments

3 Comment from Anonymous March 5, 2005, 1:16 pm

It’s not the marijuana they grow that makes the government so angry - it’s the fact that they’re STEALING POWER. The government just wants its cut.

4 Comment from peterjm March 8, 2005, 7:17 pm

Living in Alberta, this has been the only story on the front page of the newspapers since the deaths happened. And each time I see a newspaper, I think exactly those thoughts: these deaths were needless both because killing them was unnecessary and senseless, and because they died as the direct result of drug laws that are essentially pointless in our society.

I used to think that legalizing marijunana would merely prevent the monetary cost of policing it; now I see that it could also prevent a human cost as well.

5 Comment from Joshua Prowse May 16, 2005, 4:49 pm

Fact: About 90% of marajuna produced in Canada is exported to the USA.

Canada is a hot grow spot because of our laxer penalties in the event of getting caught. Decriminalizing or legalizing the growing/posession/dealing of pot in Canada will not affect its legality in the states. And you’ll still have the same criminal elements just as involved in exporting it as always. The problem isn’t our drug laws. Changing those won’t affect the problem. The problem is organized crime and only tougher enforcement can deal with that. Or changing the US’ drug laws. (Fat chance)

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