Pubdate: Thu, 11 Mar 2010
Source: Cloverdale Reporter (CN BC)
Copyright: 2010 Cloverdale Reporter News
Contact:  http://www.cloverdalereporter.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3407
Author: Heather Fisher

GROW OPS 'STINK', LOCAL RUNNER FUMES

Dear Grow-Op Owners,

Venting your grows while I'm out running stinks and pollutes the air I breathe.

The provincial and municipal governments are being negligent in the 
fight against organized crime.

I'm a runner and I run 30 to 50 km a week, and during most runs I 
come across five or more grow-ops venting. This interferes with my 
right to breathe in fresh air and compromises my health and well 
being. It appears as though these grow-ops are so sophisticated that 
they vent into the sewers so that it is nearly impossible to 
determine what home they are coming from.

With the governments' complacency in choosing not to seek out and 
shut down grow-ops within our communities they're saying it's okay. 
Growing marijuana is not a victimless crime. It negatively affects 
communities, property values, and sends out the wrong message to 
children by saying grow-ops are okay, and we have to accept that 
they're everywhere.

I further believe that no good can come from the use of marijuana, 
with the exception of medicinal purposes of which should only be 
grown in government facilities where production can be regulated.

Those who use marijuana use it primarily as an escape mechanism to 
numb feelings that they avoid dealing with. It is detrimental to 
society, especially when it starts to impact the lives of those who 
do not use drugs; the encroachment into my life and those of my 
children is intolerable. I will not let organized crime take over my community.

Heather Fisher,

Surrey
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom