Pubdate: Tue, 31 Aug 2004
Source: Chilliwack Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2004 Chilliwack Times
Contact:  http://www.chilliwacktimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1357
Author: Russell Barth
Referenced:  http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04.n1193.a05.html

POT BYLAW WON'T WORK

Editor,

Re: Home Grown Bylaw Targets Pot Business

Forcing landlords to pay huge fines will not make the pot-growing
problem disappear.

If anything, it will likely make landlords want to participate in the
industry to offset the costs of these fines.

They would get a lighter penalty for actually growing pot themselves
than they would for inadvertently letting a tenant grow it.

Probably, the landlords will just decide to pay the fine and get into
the pot-growing business themselves to cover their costs.

Since the police can never catch everyone, that would be the smart
thing to do.

Recent statistics say there could be as many as 50,000 marijuana
grow-ops in Canada.

If police were to bust five every single day (which is many, many
times more than they do now), it would take over 27 years to get them
all.

And for every person that they bust, a dozen more are waiting to take
their place. And who would pay for all this increased police, court,
and incarceration activity? The taxpayers.

It is time for the police and government to get something into their
heads: cannabis growing is never going to go away.

The only way to control the situation is to legalize it and regulate
it so it will be grown in industrial green houses instead of suburbs.

Russell Barth

Ottawa, Ont.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin