cannabisnews.com: Legalize Pot, End Grow Houses





Legalize Pot, End Grow Houses
Posted by CN Staff on October 19, 2004 at 10:27:17 PT
Opinion
Source: Brock Press
The problem with grow houses isn't that they produce marijuana, but how they produce marijuana. First of all, they use amateur electricians to steal power. Not only does this drive up hydro rates for those of us not growing weed, using an amateur electrician to hook up your hydro is about as wise as letting an amateur brain surgeon remove a tumour from your frontal lobe. The combination of suspect wiring and the intense humidity created by having hundreds, and sometimes thousands of plants crammed together in a small space makes grow houses first-class fire traps.
Not only are they highly flammable, but grow houses are also frequently filled with booby traps to keep thieves away from the crop. When firefighters come to a call at a grow house, not only are they in danger from the inferno, but also from the various implements of death surrounding the house.Given the inherent danger of having grow houses in residential neighbourhoods, it's hard to object to Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter's proposal to give hydro companies - the people who are most able to locate probable grow houses - the authority to cut the power to suspected grow houses and turn their location over to police. It makes sense to have these dangerous operations shut down before they catch fire, as opposed to after.What makes more sense, however, is for the government to legalize and regulate the growing and distribution of marijuana, eliminating the criminal element and the accompanying danger entirely.I'm not going to be one of those potheads who desperately tries to convince the masses that marijuana is harmless; it's not. Major league stoners have long, drawn out conversations that go nowhere, they frequently forget things, like their keys or their names, and sometimes their brains get so irreparably damaged that they start to think that Phish is a really good band.What is easy to argue is the fact that the time, effort and resources put into stopping the growth and sale of marijuana are way out of proportion to the negative effects the drug has on society. To a cynic, the campaign against ganja seems to have more to do with governments' desire to curry favour with our neighbour to the south by taking part in their ill-advised war on drugs that it does with a legitimate concern over the brain cells of a generation. Decriminalization as proposed by the Chretien administration would not go far enough. While it would prevent otherwise law-abiding citizens from getting criminal records for holding small amounts of dope, it would still leave marijuana production in the hands of outlaws, meaning that dangerous grow houses would still exist.If brain cells and crippling addiction were really at issue, the government would have never lifted the prohibition on alcohol, a drug that kills hundred of people every year and provokes thousands to fight much bigger people, make early-morning calls to their exes and puke on their new Etnies. Marijuana isn't more dangerous than alcohol because it's a more dangerous substance. It's more dangerous because the people who produce it are dangerous.Note: Grow houses are bad, bad places. Source: Brock Press, The (CN ON Edu)Published: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 Copyright: 2004 The Brock Press.Website: http://www.brockpress.com/Contact: http://www.brockpress.com/main.cfm?include=submitRelated Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmOntario Introduces Legislation To Stop MJ Growshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19665.shtmlBill To Allow Hydro into Suspected Grow-opshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19610.shtml
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Comment #17 posted by cloud7 on October 20, 2004 at 15:37:07 PT
Not Really Off Topic
I thought this quote summed up the drug war neatly from an interview with Judge James Gray:What is it that you believe in so strongly that makes it important for you to oppose the war on drugs?With any policy there are winners and losers. In the war on drugs there are four groups of winners.Number one, we have filled our prisons with low-level drug offenders, leaving those people who are smarter, more organized and more violent. They are winning.Number two are government bureaucrats who get big-time tax money. Two sitting congressmen told me that they are addicted to drug money and don't want to give it up.Number three are the politicians who talk tough, not smart, but tough on drugs, and they get elected by doing this.Number four are the people who build and staff prisons, sell burglar alarms, and market newspapers. Because when crime goes up, so does sales.Who is losing? Everyone else, particularly our children, for whom it is easier to get drugs than alcohol.http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/3507.html
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on October 20, 2004 at 11:50:53 PT
ekim
I haven't received the magazine yet. I haven't heard a word.
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Comment #15 posted by ekim on October 20, 2004 at 11:48:44 PT
has anyone read anything about the Oct issue 
of the AARP mag that is suppose to have mention of Med Cannabis.
http://www.leap.cc/events
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on October 20, 2004 at 11:42:53 PT
ekim
Then it will probably be many more days of no sex for Arnie! LOL!
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Comment #13 posted by ekim on October 20, 2004 at 11:41:12 PT
C-span said today Arnold will go to Ohio for W
something about the state being the starting place for him in the body building business. 
http://www.aammi.org
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on October 20, 2004 at 08:21:59 PT
No Sex For Arnie!
I busted up laughing when he said that after he endorsed Bush! I'm happy he is standing for Stem Cell Research too. 
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on October 20, 2004 at 08:19:11 PT
Thanks EJ
I'll have to check out VH1. I've never really watched MTV or VH1. I guess I like to watch news and if the news is too much I listen to my own favorite music. I'm a Discovery, Learning Channel, History Channel type person.
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Comment #10 posted by E_Johnson on October 20, 2004 at 08:17:46 PT
It's on tonight
But it's at midnight, California time.By the way, I think I'm going to start pronouncing California Arnold's way. Kah - lee -- FOR -- neee -- yahIt sounds like a chant. He's been in some TV campaign ads lately. He just can't give up his accent. It's kind of cute.
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Comment #9 posted by E_Johnson on October 20, 2004 at 08:13:05 PT
It's on many times
They show it a lot on VH1.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on October 20, 2004 at 07:30:15 PT
What Time is The Show?
I barely turn off news channels so I miss a lot. I will check it out if I know when it's on. I try to watch the Daily Show for my comic relief now that I've seen it a few times. 
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Comment #7 posted by E_Johnson on October 20, 2004 at 01:10:09 PT
FoM try the Surreal Life
The episode I saw tonight had Brigitte Nielsen wearing a sweatshirt with a huge marijuana leaf and the word HYDRO in giant letters. And they didn't fuzz it out on VH1 the way they do with herbal insignias on MTV.She's the one hooking up with Flavor Flav, the rapper.The funniest scene was when one of the guys was making a mistake producing a record and wouldn't admit it and ignored everyone who tried to tell him about it. Charo did a little dance and in her Cuban accent she sang, "There is caca of of the bull tonight."I wonder if they're all toking up behind the scenes.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on October 19, 2004 at 22:33:38 PT
Them Fightin' Words There EJ!
I'm just kidding but John Wayne just popped into my mind! LOL!
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Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on October 19, 2004 at 22:31:11 PT
Please don't shoot me for this thought
There is an upside to Bush winning. Democrats will be so stressed out that many of them will resort to smoking weed, and they'll be eager to legalize it when they get back in power.
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Comment #4 posted by mayan on October 19, 2004 at 18:18:28 PT
He's Right About 1 Thing
The author is pretty clueless except for one point he brings up. Cannabis should be legalized!Below is a link to an article that further exposes the futility of the drug war. If customs officials are smuggling smack,cola & bud then how could our government ever hope to keep drugs out of the country? It's obvious that isn't their intention. The drug war is a cultural/racial/political war meant to line their own pockets and marginalize the poor and middle class at the same time.Customs Officials Nabbed In Drug Smuggling Sting - Suspected Smugglers Worked At Midway Airport:
http://www.nbc5.com/news/3833530/detail.htmlThe way out is the way in...911TRUTHLA PRESENTS - "SOLVING THE 9/11 Crime - A Citizens' Grand Jury":
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/archive/scoop/stories/80/44/200410191105.a580e270.htmlPRESS RELEASE: Protesting Zelikow's 9/11 Commission at Stanford:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/archive/scoop/stories/21/fc/200410191534.5725dff8.htmlTop Ten Pieces of 9/11 Evidence:
http://www.the-movement.com/index.htmCrossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil:
http://www.septembereleventh.org/alerts/ruppert.php
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Comment #3 posted by siege on October 19, 2004 at 16:15:47 PT
 brock
If this is all the better brock university can do I wont be haring any of them!!! If brain cells and crippling addiction were really at issue, the government would have never lifted the prohibition on alcohol, a drug that kills hundred of people every year. Marijuana isn't more dangerous than alcohol because it's a more dangerous substance. It's more dangerous because the people in government
can't get there head out of there A r  *   S. If the Canadian government WAS to legalize! The US Dictator, George Bush would seet his pants and be sent straight to the Nut House for sure.
more dangerous substance [MMJ] when reality sets in, where are you going to be Mr or Mis Opinion??? siting in the corner holding the Dictator's hand. I wander if you have ever engaged the brain before you, run your mouth.
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Comment #2 posted by Max Flowers on October 19, 2004 at 15:27:05 PT
good points; also,
...the implication is that every indoor grower steals electrical power, which is absolutely NOT the case... only a small percentage of them do that (the really stupid ones).And that business trotting out the stereotypes about "major league stoners" is more of the same, i.e. taking what is true for a very small percentage of users and writing as if it's the undisputed truth about all. I know "major league stoners" who are PhDs and top-notch lawyers. I'd like to see the accomplishments and credentials of whomever wrote this trash... oh I see, they didn't want to give a name and are hiding behind the rag's name...?The piece was just another piece... of sh*t writing.
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Comment #1 posted by lombar on October 19, 2004 at 14:44:14 PT
Don't try to help without doing a bit of research.
The initial statement is fallacious. Wiring electrical stuff is NOT nearly as complex as brain surgery. I know a few electricians that were dumb as bricks but they knew how to wire a house. They made quite a good living at it. I'd also like to know how having moisture laden air contributes to a fire hazzard? Faulty wiring is one thing but humidity? I guess he/she never tried to burn a freshly picked plant?Articles like this don't really help us. The author mis-characterizes cannabis users badly. Even though he/she appears to be arguing for an end prohibition, he/she has slipped in the old reefer madness stuff plus the new modern bugaboo of burning grow houses. If, as he/she claims, cannabis use leads to brain damage, who would ever prescribe it as medicine, let alone consider legalizing it??? Cannabis has the effect of coating the myelin sheathing on nerve cells actually protecting them and reducing neurodegeneration. There are something like 20,000 grow-ops in Vancouver, if they were as dangerous as this person claims there would be a fire every other day and YOU KNOW the media would not let that slide. I need a good anti-emetic after that read...get out the Phish and....what was I saying???(/satire)
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