Canadian police alarmed by booming marijuana trade

Canadian police are increasingly worried by the destabilizing effect of a multibillion-dollar illegal marijuana industry, which they call a "plague on our society".

Four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers were shot dead on Thursday at a farm in northwestern Alberta that was the site of a suspected marijuana growing operation, or "grow op".

Estimates for the value of the trade vary widely and some experts say it is worth C$10 billion ($8.1 billion) a year. The main center is the Pacific province of British Columbia, where criminals export potent marijuana to the United States.

"The issue of grow ops is not a Ma-and-Pa industry, as we've been saying for a number of years. These are major serious threats to our society ... and major organized crime in many cases is involved," said Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, Canada's top Mountie.

"This is really a plague on our society now. This isn't just happening in small communities, it's happening throughout the country," he said on Thursday.

Police say penalties for those involved are too lenient and complain they do not have enough officers to tackle the often ingenious criminals involved in the trade.

In January 2004, police discovered 30,000 pot plants worth more than C$30 million growing in a former brewery in the city of Barrie near Toronto.

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Legalize it.

What happened to plans to legalize it in Canada anyway?

There is a bill before the House of Commons right now, I believe. It won't legalize it, but rather just decriminalize it, so that if you got caught with some, you'd get a ticket similar to a parking ticket.

This is just more bullshit to scare people.

"The stoners are coming! The stoners are coming!"

What tripe.

but possession of small amounts would be decriminalized. One would pay a fine if they had amounts over the legal limit. Growing and trafficking would still be illegal.

a very simple solution.

Maybe someday contemporary governments will get that through their thick skulls.

possession, at a time. It doesn't give you the right to farm it.

Does a joint last a whole day though?

Many may not follow the Free Cannabis Movement, but the possession laws were acknowledged by the courts in May of 2003 to be of no force and effect. This would stem from Health Canada not developing a proper distribution of marijuana for medical purposes before the court ordered deadline of July 31, 2001. Cultivation laws were struck down in an Alberta court and affirmed by the Alberta Court of Appeal in R. v Krieger.

These laws are still dead as Parliament has passed no new legislation to replace the ones struck down by the courts. You can read more about it here- http://www.hempcity.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=517&start=0

From the link above-

The biggest and best cannabis story inside the saga of the Free Cannabis Movement is happening in Canada. It is an amazing story because it is so incredible that it challenges your sense of what is real. There are those that say there is Free Cannabis For Canadians right now because the cannabis prohibition laws became dead on July 31, 2001. This is a well-established historical fact even though it would be May of 2003 before the media would inform the Canadian public of the facts. Several court rulings in May of 2003 forced a media reporting frenzy that the CP laws were dead.

What is strange is that the Crown acknowledges the death of their precious CP laws, yet there were 100,000 cannabis-issue convictions when even the Crown admits the laws were dead. There has been no move by the Crown to right this injustice. They just let the criminal records of good people stay there even though they were not in violation of any law.

The cops initially went to the farm on a stolen goods complaint...then they found the 'grow op'.

So far, other than the Canadian Media running file footage of grow ops, there is NO details about this particular 'grow op'...like how big, extensive, how many plants, level of sophistication, whether the guy was extensively linked to organized crime...

I really dislike it when the cops decide to impose on public policy with little more than 'moral' outrage and flimsy claims of 'plague'.