Pubdate: Mon, 21 Sep 2009 Source: Barrhaven This Week (CN ON) Copyright: 2009 Ottawa Region Media Group Contact: http://www.yourbarrhaven.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4767 Author: Russell Barth, Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis POT BUSTS ONLY DRIVE UP THE PRICE OF DRUGS FOR OTHER GANGS RE: Barrhaven Grow Op (NBTW Sept. 10) To the editor, Guess who is most pleased about this bust? The 90 to 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 that. If the police busted twice as many grows this year as last year, they would still only get about 20 per cent of them. And every time they bust one grower - 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 subsidizing the entire industry by busting only a minority of them. The cops know it too. They know they are subsidizing criminals because the evidence to support what I say is widely available and simple enough for even the dullest 10-year-old to understand. And don't tell me "the cops don't make the laws!" The police have been lobbying the government for decades to keep the war on certain drugs going. They lobby constantly - with our tax dollars, no less - and have way too much influence over our governments - at all levels. They like to tell the public that 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 pot becomes more widely available. All over a medicinal plant that recent science suggests actually fights cancer: 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? Because that is the Canada you live in right now. Russell Barth - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr