To The Editor,
Guess who is most pleased about this eradication policy. 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 it: If the police busted twice as many grows this year as last year, they would still only get about 20 per cent of them. One-fifth. Probably less.
And every time they bust one grow - 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 actually subsidizing the entire industry by busting only a minority of them.
The cops know they are subsidizing criminals because the evidence to support what I say is widely available.
The police have been lobbying government for decades to keep the war on certain plants going. They lobby constantly - with our tax dollars no less - and have way too much influence over our governments, at all levels.
They also like to tell the public 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 organized criminals grow stronger and pot becomes more widely available.
All this over a medicinal plant that recent science suggests actually fights cancer.
Is this the Canada you want to live in? A country where cops help gangsters and deprive people of valuable medicine and tax revenue? Because that is the Canada you live in right now.
Russell Barth, Licensed Medical Marijuana User, Nepean, Ont.
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