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Don't Let Us Go To Pot
Pubdate: Wed, 01 Dec 2004
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2004 The Calgary Sun
Contact: http://www.fyicalgary.com/calsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Janet L. Jackson, Calgary Sun
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
DON'T LET US GO TO POT
Don't you know that smoking pot makes you a better driver? It is
surprising how many people buy into pro-pot propaganda.
John Collison's attitude and lack of facts versus fiction, on AM
1060's Western Standard Hour Radio, is pathetic. I debated with
Collison on his Monday show. He believes marijuana is just another
cottage industry where the state should butt out.
But Collision, like most Canadians, is woefully unaware of the
practical reality -- they wink at the problem the Liberal government
has created. Collison and other uninformed pro-pot proponents should
support decriminalization only if they are in favour of organized
crime moving into their own suburb.
At the movie theatre, it is becoming impossible to avoid
taxpayer-funded anti-tobacco ads while at the same time escaping
second-hand pot smoke on the way out of the show.
Federal studies show 30% of 15- to 17-year-olds and 47% of 18- to
19-year-olds used marijuana in the past year. But, is it any surprise
school kids think it is healthier to toke than smoke cigarettes?
You have to dig to find facts on the Internet. Fact 1 - Marijuana's
tetrahydrocannabinol THC (active drug ingredient) has increased from
less then 1% in the 1960s to street marijuana today that is now
approaching levels over 25% THC. Pot is no longer a "soft drug." Fact
2 -- Marijuana smoke contains 50% to 70% more carcinogenic
hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke.
For those who think legalization and government taxation is the
answer, sorry to purge the cloud of smoke.
Nowhere in the world is marijuana legal. Do you really want the feds
taking the place of organized crime?
The newest immigration peelergate scandal and Gagliano affair will
then become an accepted way of life.
Just like Mexico, or Holland -- the country with the failed drug
experiment even France now criticizes.
Holland, where non-addicts carry their car radios to the bakery,
hoping to avoid their cars being broken into by drug addicts, is of
course the model the federal Liberals are using for Canada's drug policy.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, "a cannabis
grower operating a 50 plant hydroponics operation that harvests three
crops of 15% potency can realize an annual profit of $225,000
(Canadian)."
So a home with 200 plants will clear $1 million in three cycles.
Post-modern crime lords don't need to rent the house they grow in,
they can purchase with cash and abandon the now toxic mould condemned
house when finished, leaving the city or municipality and insurance to
clean up behind them.
Some $6 billion a year is now generated from grow-ops in B.C. alone --
almost one-quarter of its legal annual provincial budget.
Police, however, are urging realtors to help them bust the burgeoning
basement grow-op racket.
Safety issues to also keep in mind are dangerous booby-trapped homes
and home-made wiring. Allowing grow-ops to steal power from power
companies are a serious cause of home fires today. Up in smoke is no
longer a joke. It could mean your own home going up along with your
friendly neighbourhood grow-op.
With less than $500 million spent per year to combat illicit drugs in
Canada (prevention, border and police budgets included) if Paul Martin
wants to get U.S. President George Bush to look at opening the border
for cattle and lumber, cracking down on the Canadian grow-ops, where
the lucrative goal is smuggling high-grade weed into the U.S., would
be an excellent rapport-building strategy.
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MAP posted-by: Derek