Pubdate: Wed, 21 Oct 2009
Source: Nelson Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Nelson Daily News
Contact: http://www.nelsondailynews.com/section/nelson0303&template=letter
Website: http://www.nelsondailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/288
Author: Russell Barth
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n922/a01.html
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n937/a06.html

POLICE POT BUSTS 'UNPRODUCTIVE'

To the Editor:

Re: Police outdoor pot busts yield high numbers

Guess who is most pleased about this eradication policy?

The 90-95 per cent of growers who will never be caught.

This colossal waste of time and money is not only failing to fix
things, it is, in fact, outrageously counterproductive.

Think about it; If the police busted twice as many grows this year as
last year, they would still only get about 20 per cent of them.
(One-fifth, probably less.)

And every time they bust one grow - indoor, outdoor, small or big -
all they do is make the ones they don't catch that much more valuable.

Not only is the illegality of pot the very thing that makes growing it
so lucrative, the police are actually subsidizing the entire industry
by busting only a minority of them.

The cops know they are subsidizing criminals because the evidence to
support what I say is widely available.

They do it deliberately to secure their jobs.

And don't tell me the cops don't make the laws. The police have been
lobbying government for decades to keep the war on certain plants going.

They lobby constantly, with our tax dollars no less, and have way too
much influence over our governments, at all levels.

They also like to tell the public this is somehow interfering with
organized crime or preventing pot from reaching your kids, but
informed people know better.

Every year the cops bust more and more people, and every year
organized criminals grow stronger and pot becomes more widely available.

All this over a medicinal plant that recent science suggests actually
fights cancer:

http://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20071226/pot-slows-cancer-in-test-tube

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/july132009/cbd_2_sc_7-13-09.php

Is this the Canada you want to live in, a country where cops help
gangsters and deprive people of valuable medicine?

This is the Canada you live in right now.

Russell Barth,

federally licensed medical marijuana user, Nepean, Ont.

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis,

http://www.paidoc.org 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D