cannabisnews.com: Canada High On Pot List





Canada High On Pot List
Posted by CN Staff on November 03, 2002 at 08:27:06 PT
By Shane Holladay, Edmonton Sun
Source: Edmonton Sun
Canada trails only the corruption-riddled regimes of Mexico and Colombia as the top supplier of killer-quality weed to the U.S., says Ontario's Public Safety and Security Commissioner. "That's not something to be proud of," Bob Runciman told The Sun. "We can see the United States wanting us to play a more active role in dealing with this." Runciman - meeting with provincial and federal justice ministers in Calgary this week - plans to push for minimum sentences for pot house operators once he's there. 
Police now cite "catch and release justice" as a key problem in the proliferation of marijuana-growing operations, Runciman said. Edmonton's Sgt. Glen Hayden agreed. "I've seen it for years," he said. "I was in the drug section until about eight months ago for eight years. I'm too familiar with it." Edmonton's drug section busted somewhere between 60 and 90 growing operations in 2000 and 2001, sometimes raiding one home a week, Hayden said. Cops in Ontario estimate indoor marijuana growing is a $1-billion a year business there, the third-largest agricultural cash crop. Operators usually rent houses, steal power and leave the place in shambles and a fire hazard, police said. Offenders in the U.S. are usually handed stiff jail terms, but it's not unusual for convicted growers in Canada to get a conditional sentence or short jail term. However, Hayden said he thinks changing the access local police departments have to the proceeds of crime they seize will do far more to curb growing operations than stiffer penalties. Canada's proceeds-of-crime legislation was fashioned to prevent cops from targeting people because they're rich, Hayden said. "But in the same vein, if he's rich and he's making all kinds of proceeds from drugs, why wouldn't we target him? Why wouldn't we use his resources to target someone else down the road? It's something we don't have when it comes to budget time." Senator Tommy Banks - part of a Senate subcommittee that recently recommended criminal code exemptions for licensed growers of marijuana and simple possession - wants anyone illegally growing marijuana jailed and their assets seized. "I'm talking about the big ones, the hydroponic ones where there are mass-producing," he said. "They should always be illegal when they're not properly licensed and properly regulated." As for Canada's ranking as the third-largest supplier of quality weed, Banks said the situation is "horrible." "The grow operations that I'm talking about, that I regard as criminal and whose stuff ought to be forfeited, are the ones that are for profit, that are for criminal activity." Note: No. 3 supplier to the U.S.Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Author: Shane Holladay, Edmonton SunPublished: Sunday, November 3, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Canoe Limited PartnershipContact: sun.letters ccinet.ab.ca Website: http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtmlRelated Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmU.S. Pot War Comes Northhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11937.shtmlLondon Joins National Drug Busthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11888.shtmlNationwide Drug Busts Weed Out $50M in Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11887.shtml 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #9 posted by Naaps on November 04, 2002 at 05:52:57 PT
Canadian Pot Exports
I had understood that domestic growing heroes supplied approximately half of the American cannabis market. Of the imported supply, Canada only contributed 5% of the market share, far less than Mexico and Columbia.This article focuses on Police and Public Safety Officials calling for all manner of stepping up penalties to combat cultivation. Glen Hayden, is an outspoken member of the Canadian Police Association Executive. He was the fellow, whom within an hour of the Senate Committee releasing its report, was on National Television characterizing the report as a back to school gift for pushers. Clearly, to issue such a statement, given the length and breadth of the report, he couldn’t have even bothered to read it, far too sanguine, and focused on propelling the CPA to the top of domestic importance.Senator Banks did indeed participate in the Senate report. Unfortunately, either he wasn’t articulate enough to outline the many steps the report holds for reducing unauthorized large cultivation, or his utterances were tailored and edited for impact in this article. The Senate report suggests steps taking the distribution and production of cannabis out of criminal hands and into the official public domain. Properly implemented, cannabis would lose much of its appeal as a cash crop, unless one’s focus was delivering the product across the line.Presently, Canadian producers sell cannabis for approximately $2000 Can/pound. If the same product on the south side of the line has a value of $4000 US/pound, it has increased 3 times in value. There is a powerful profit motivating enterprising people.Ultimately, this smuggling incentive must be thwarted by re-legalizing cannabis within the US. Clearly, despite the prohibition people yearn for Canadian cannabis, so as Columbia and Mexico would say – the demand is there, we merely attend to it.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by Patrick on November 03, 2002 at 11:45:15 PT
A dime bag? 
Makes me wonder just where the whole concept of a "dime bag" came from in the first place? From prohibition perhaps? How can a cannabis plant or any plant for that matter be reportedly worth up to "$4000" per pound? Prohibition perhaps? I can buy imported banana's for $.23 a pound? Does non-prohibition of bananas lower the cost just a little? Perhaps, Stacey's fictionally-paralyzed friend carries her emotional string playing cross because of the manufacturer of the gun that sold it to a gun dealer that resold it so it eventually ended up in the hand of the shooter that paralyzed Stacey's friend? Or perhaps, dime bags go even deeper. Just maybe the 9/11 terrorist attack was caused by the Corporate CEO of the hardware store that bought and resold the box knife that eventually was carried aboard the flights by Saudi Arabian nationals whose next door neighbor at the time, bought a "dime bag" on 9/9 from an employee in the corporate hardware store. Can't you all clearly see how a "dime bag" of evil marijuana led to the mass murders and destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11? This is the logic used in this tax wasted commercial about Stacey and her "dime bag." And he thinks Americans are stupid enough to continue buying into this multi-billion dollar war to protect us from ourselves? I say dissolve the DEAth machine and use the billions in the DEAth budget to increas social security benefits, better our schools, and provide comprehensive health care to all of our citizens.Mr. Walters you should resign and stop wasting our tax dollars on BS commercials and your sadistic WAR on cannabis. We can't even vote your ass out of office. That is the real crime here. How, Why, and Where do appointed bureaucrats like you get off telling The People what to do and what to think?
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #7 posted by Patrick on November 03, 2002 at 10:52:53 PT
This is Stacey,
She is a paid actress in a commercial paid for with public funds to convince us that life is a circle of equal and opposite reactions all because Stacey bought a "dime bag of marijuana?" LOL LOL no no ROTHFLMAO.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by canaman on November 03, 2002 at 10:40:17 PT
Prohibitionist fear saturation tactics
They are cranking up the propaganda machine. They are getting really worried. Hopefully sanity will prevail and Mandatory Minimums and Asset Forfeiture will be exposed for what they are. A DISMAL FAILURE!!! Get Up! Stand Up! For your rights Canada! Facists are infiltrating your country! Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) http://www.famm.org/index2.htmForfeiture Endangers American Rights Foundation (FEAR) http://www.fear.org/
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by FoM on November 03, 2002 at 10:21:55 PT
One More Thing
We have a serious problem in our country. People aren't making enough money to make ends meet. By driving up the cost of BC Bud that will mean less money being circulated in the legitimate economy. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by FoM on November 03, 2002 at 10:16:29 PT
I Feel So Bad
I am so upset with this article. They keep showing that really bad Stacey commerical on CNN Headline News and talking about Canada and how it supplies the US with Pot. I never in my life saw any BC Bud. So much for me being with the program. LOL!It will drive the cost up for those who do get BC Bud. It's the law of economics!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by canaman on November 03, 2002 at 10:11:32 PT
BEWARE CANADA!!!
Mandatory Minimums and Asset Forfeiture may by coming to a town near you! Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM)
http://www.famm.org/index2.htmForfeiture Endangers American Rights Foundation (FEAR) 
http://www.fear.org/
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by p4me on November 03, 2002 at 09:45:02 PT
This crap won't float
It sure makes sense to lock people up to protect them from marijuana. Fine them, block them out of the employment arena, take their property, and ring them with the most unbelievable list of charges one could imagine. It just won't work.The problem is that marijuana is the ideal recreational drug. You can be high and it won't interfere with eating potato chips on the couch and spending the night away watching commercials and repeats. One of the worst statements that comes from the propagandizing fascist is that MJ use might go up. That is f-word territory as in what the f does increased use have to do with freedom.The world is going to have a shift away from alcohol and towards cannabis. It is coming no matter what the fascist say. It only helps point out to the unaware that money can corrupt our right to freedom. Where is the victim? Where is the crime? It is all manufactured and propagandized because using cannibis produces no victims and there is no crime. Prohibition is a sraw house that needs a wind of change to blow it down and make the world a better place.Reading about the cannabis prohibition sheds a light on the corruption that must be eliminated. It is the important story line of seeing with a cannabis knowledge that we have prohibition because of such widespread corruption. Now that there is open demand for conquest of the oil fields of the world and/or controlling governments that control oil, other people will see how the powerfully corrupted will stop at nothing to feed their addiction for wealth and power. The corruption is there for all to see, but the cannabis viewpoint makes it all so clear in a hurry.Prohibition kills and corrupts. Prohibitionist are murderers and destroyers of the environment. And they try to give potheads a bad name. Goddamn them.1
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by WolfgangWylde on November 03, 2002 at 08:35:50 PT
Number 3, but still too far behind to mention.
Check border seizure stats. Canada is far behind Mexico as a supplier. In fact, its far behind the U.S. Pure scare tactics, more bad journalism.
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment