cannabisnews.com: Ottawa Pushed for National Drug Strategy





Ottawa Pushed for National Drug Strategy
Posted by FoM on February 18, 2002 at 19:07:19 PT
By James McCarten, Canadian Press
Source: Canadian Press
Calls on Ottawa to lessen the criminal consequences of drug use were all but eclipsed Monday by harrowing law-enforcement tales about Canada's "staggering" hydroponic marijuana industry. Toronto police Chief Julian Fantino was among several Ontario police officials to tell a House of Commons committee on non-medical drugs just how bad Canada's pot problem has become. 
"The sheer volume of sites is a significant drain on police resources," Fantino told the committee during hearings in Toronto. "Hydroponic marijuana prosecutions result in sentences in the range of six months to a year; hardly a deterrent to the organized criminal groups that can bring in $400,000 a year from 400 plants." Indeed, the sale of Canadian marijuana -- now so potent it can no longer be considered a "soft drug" -- is likely financing heroin and ecstacy operations and other criminal enterprises, he added. And it's all because Canada lacks a coherent, co-ordinated, national drug strategy, something Fantino said he's been advocating over the course of his 33-year career. "It's the dilemma we're all facing; we're all over the map," Fantino told committee vice-chairman and Canadian Alliance MP Randy White. "The drug strategy in this country, as we know it, is a great philosophical document, but that's all it is; it doesn't really empower us or enable us to obtain any results." Meanwhile, homegrown weed is fast becoming one of Canada's largest and fastest-growing industries, said Waterloo police Supt. Bill Stevens. "The profusion of marijuana growing operations across Canada is staggering," Stevens said. "In the province of Ontario, it's a billion-dollar industry, and getting bigger; in British Columbia, it is a $6-billion empire which is surpassing the lumber industry."Operation Greensweep, last month's simultaneous, national single-day crackdown on grow houses across Canada, netted some $47 million worth of plants and resulted in 136 arrests and 190 charges, Stevens said. Some 28 children discovered in the houses -- which, between the haphazard electrical wiring and the booby traps set to discourage trespassers and rival growers, are largely death traps -- were turned over to child-welfare authorities, he added. Greensweep was just the tip of the iceberg, Stevens admitted. "I submit that we have only scratched the surface." Marijuana's just part of the problem, added Stevens, who described a rural high school in the Waterloo area where some 10 students were recently found to be addicted to heroin. Across Canada, a country that has long been a major drug pipeline to the U.S., half the RCMP officers dedicated to drug enforcement have been reassigned since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Allen said. And Canadian laws permitting the legal manufacture of chemicals used to make meth-amphetamines allow dealers to ship huge quantities to illegal drug makers south of the border, he added. "These shipments to the U.S. are often measured in tractor-trailer loads." And while the law-enforcement sentiments were largely at odds with those the medical experts and social workers who spoke during the morning hearings, they agreed on one thing: the need for a co-ordinated national approach to the drug problem, and fast. "What we need is a national drug strategy, as of now," said Diane Riley of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy and Harm Prevention Network. "It would be absolutely immoral and negligent of us to leave it at this." The spread of HIV in Canada from the use of dirty needles has reached crisis proportions, said Riley, creating a "lost generation" of drug users and chronic problems that may well be irreversible, she added. "We have reached the level ...that we know from our studies is the point of no return." Alan Young, a law professor at the University of Toronto, said many European countries have realized it makes more sense to tolerate drug use and concentrate on stopping people from starting. And even Fantino acknowledged that the possession of small quantities of marijuana ought to be decriminalized, making it akin to a ticketing offence that wouldn't result in a criminal record. "We want to find a way of creating an offence that wouldn't be a criminal offence," he said. "We're not looking at legalizing it; I'm totally and completely opposed to legalizing it." But the traditional law-enforcement model of using criminal sanctions as a deterrent simply doesn't work, and can even be an incentive to adventurous, risk-taking teens, Riley told the committee. "All young people want to take risks," said Riley, who called for efforts to better educate children and parents alike about the true consequences of drug use. "It has to tell kids what drugs are going to do to you -- at the moment, there is so much misinformation that kids don't believe anything." Source: Canadian Press (Canada Wire)Author: James McCarten, Canadian PressPublished: Monday, February 18, 2002 Copyright: 2002 The Canadian Press (CP)Related Articles & Web Site:Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htm U.S. Pot War Comes North http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11937.shtmlNationwide Drug Busts Weed Out $50M in Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11887.shtml 
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Comment #9 posted by potpal on February 19, 2002 at 18:41:18 PT
400k
Yeah thanks to prohibition. If no prohibition, 400 plants would bag you about $100, I figure with the way cannabis grows so vivaciously, it would cost less than corn, something like 50 cents a pound,(stop that droolin!). Not much incentive there for grow ops.28 children, I thought the war was to save the children not destroy them.haphazard electrical wiring, there we go again. Of course potheads wouldn't know how to screw in a light blub and then plug in the lamp....we have only scratched the surface, before we're through we'll have all of Cannada behind bars!$47 million worth of plants, thanks to prohibition, remember 50 cents a pound.10 students were recently found to be addicted to heroin, well its much cheaper than herb these days....an offence that wouldn't be a criminal offence, (but still allow us to keep our pockets lined and the black market to flourish...)All young people want to take risks, a risk is worth a thousand dreams....there is so much misinformation, then you best start cleaning house, nitwits, your lies and propaganda are coming home to roost.On the path they're taking us before you know it we'll have half of America in jail and the other half guarding them.Cheers mates!Sow every single last seed...
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Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on February 19, 2002 at 09:55:38 PT
This is very interesting.....
Exactly what response are these LEO wackos trying to elicit? I didn't exactly hear the reps from BC piping up on this one....imagine what their answer would be: "So, you're saying we've got a $6 billion industry, the biggest in the state, mostly bringing in American dollars, and you want us to give you more of our budget to shut it down for us?"These LEO guys are fighting a rearguard, damage control strategy. They know that they must already cede personal decrim or lose all credibility. And once they admit personal decrim should be OK, it's going to be awfully hard to convince the pols, or the business elite, to shut down a huge, thriving industry.
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Comment #7 posted by freddybigbee on February 19, 2002 at 09:13:18 PT:
Soft Drug Magically Transformed?
This is precisely the right approach to educate the cannabis-ignorant public. Whenever some dim-wit lying hypocrite rants about marijuana, break down each "argument" and identify the source of the problem. Nine times out of ten, the source of the problem will be prohibition.If advocates for legalization do this in every news media relentlessly, we can use the prohibitionist propaganda as an opportunity to spell out the truth for those who are open to persuasion. Well said, Dan B!
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Comment #6 posted by herbdoc215 on February 19, 2002 at 03:41:23 PT:
Here's what I wrote them, I am fed up!Print it?
As to your little hydroponics article, how ( or why? ) would marijuana growers want or need to protect their grows with booby traps to "keep other growers from ripping you off" if the other part of your 'story' ( was also my Grandma's word for lies! ) that say's growers can get $400,000 from a measly 400 indoor plants. There is almost no marijuana grown outside with hydroponics, and as a botanist and host of Pot-Tv show and an American grow show on 'How' to grow Medical Cannabis, I should know. The reason why is roots recieve maximum oxygenation in hydroponics ( like turbo on a car ) AND since we all know water doesn't carry Oxygen very well above 72 degree's F., it would make very little sense to waste time amd money to impress cops or reporters. I have already lost one country and many homes over bad journalism and I refuse to stand by and watch it happen again, as my health is growing steadily worse. All I and many like me want is to die in peace and not be demonized because you do not understand the medicine that is keeping me alive. After I gave Health Canada over 1 million dollars(US) in medical cannabis seeds from our research in Humboldt, Ca. I feel as if my 'ransom' has been paid in full! Steven Tuck
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Comment #5 posted by Dan B on February 18, 2002 at 21:41:56 PT:
Soft Drug Magically Transformed?
"Indeed, the sale of Canadian marijuana -- now so potent it can no longer be considered a "soft drug" -- is likely financing heroin and ecstacy operations and other criminal enterprises, he added."You heard it here, folks! Cannabis is now a hard drug! Why? Because James McCarten says it is so! Illogical, you say? He don' need no stinkin' logic!The statement is absurd on its face: a drug that causes neither death nor physical addiction does not become a hard drug by being bred into a more potent drug that causes neither death nor physical addiction. If ingested by some means other than smoking, cannabis poses absolutely no physical danger to its user. If vaporized rather than smoked in a spliff, pipe or bong, it poses little risk to the lungs. And here's the kicker: if the pot is more potent, even those who smoke it from a pipe, bong or spliff benefit because less is required to achieve the desired effect!Of course, we all know these facts. Now lets look at the "drug-related problems" listed in this article, along with their actual cause(s):The sheer volume of sites is a significant drain on police resources. Source of problem: prohibition.In the province of Ontario, it's a billion-dollar industry, and getting bigger; in British Columbia, it is a $6-billion empire which is surpassing the lumber industry. Source of "problem": prohibition, which is directly responsible for the high prices currently commanded for cannabis.Some 28 children discovered in the houses -- which, between the haphazard electrical wiring and the booby traps set to discourage trespassers and rival growers, are largely death traps -- were turned over to child-welfare authorities, he added. Source of problem: prohibition, which forces marijuana growing into hiding and gives state police the power to kidnap people's children and force them into the homes of strangers, all in the name of protecting children.The spread of HIV in Canada from the use of dirty needles has reached crisis proportions, said Riley, creating a "lost generation" of drug users and chronic problems that may well be irreversible. . . Source of problem: prohibition, which--in the face of myriad studies that unanimously say clean needle programs cut the spread of HIV--denies IV drug users the clean needles they need to at least avoid spreading HIV and other dangerous diseases contracted by sharing needles.At least McCarten reported Riley's comments as well. Notice that, as usual, they appear at the end of the column--where such comments opposed to the status quo are usually relegated. To quote Toker00, realize . . . then legalize!Dan B
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Comment #4 posted by MikeEEEEE on February 18, 2002 at 21:14:30 PT
Lairs Club
I know the drug war is a big lie, but is the corporation trying to write the book on lying?The Pentagon is planning to provide news items, possibly even false ones, to foreign media in order to influence public opinion in both friendly and unfriendly countries.
Read here: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/19/international/19PENT.html
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Comment #3 posted by lookinside on February 18, 2002 at 20:12:21 PT:
Yup!
The story we will see 24/7 until the 2004 election.Evil Drug legalizers vs. Even more Evil Prohibitionists.(disclaimer: The descriptive expressions displayed here are merely to illustrate the subjective impressions that the average viewer will experience when watching the news networks.)
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Comment #2 posted by E_Johnson on February 18, 2002 at 19:30:21 PT
The Gothic Marijuana Melodrama Show
Harrowing tales!Staggering dimensions!Innocent victims ravished by fiends!Coming soon to journalism near you.
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Comment #1 posted by Toker00 on February 18, 2002 at 19:18:51 PT
Classic case of overgrowing the gov.
Cut out the BS and...REALIZE...THEN LEGALIZE! GROW CANADA!Peace. Realize, then Legalize.
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