cannabisnews.com: Feds Crack Down on Booby Traps





Feds Crack Down on Booby Traps
Posted by CN Staff on April 12, 2003 at 09:46:06 PT
By Kathleen Harris, Sun Ottawa Bureau
Source: Edmonton Sun
Ottawa -- Pot growers who rig deadly booby traps to protect their product could soon face stiffer penalties. Justice Minister Martin Cauchon introduced new legislation yesterday aimed at protecting front-line firefighters and police officers from explosives, trip-wired firearms and false floors. The devices are commonly set in marijuana growing operations or clandestine drug labs to impede police or rival criminal gangs.
"Organized crime is using more and more traps in places to proceed with their offence," Cauchon said. A proposed 10-year maximum sentence under the Criminal Code would jump to 14 years if an emergency worker is injured or a life sentence if they are killed. Under current law, setting a trap nets a maximum five-year prison term. Jim Lee, a spokesman for the Canadian arm of the International Association of Firefighters, said many firefighters have suffered injuries from electrical shocks and falls through cut-aways in floors. In one case, a crossbow was set up but fortunately wasn't properly rigged. Organized crime gangs often steal electricity from power grids and rig marijuana grow operations to alert them to the presence of law enforcers or to destroy evidence. "We are the first responders in those situations - the first people through the door," Lee said. "We're concerned about it, and it's just luck more than anything we haven't had a firefighter killed." If adopted, Lee said the legislative changes will help combat a problem that's widespread and on the rise. "By increasing the penalties it's going to be a deterrent," he said. "Canadian firefighters are going to be very pleased with this." Among other Criminal Code amendments tabled yesterday is a post-Sept. 11 clarification to authorize reasonable force to prevent criminal activity on board an aircraft in flight.  Note: Ottawa takes aim at pot growers.Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB) Author: Kathleen Harris, Sun Ottawa BureauPublished:   Saturday, April 12, 2003 Copyright: 2003 Canoe Limited PartnershipContact: letters edm.sunpub.comWebsite: http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtmlCannabisNews Articles -- Canadahttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=canada
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Comment #3 posted by Big Trees on April 13, 2003 at 17:14:30 PT
So tired of hearing this...
Break and enter criminal target pot grows. You would have to be a fool if you can't figure out why. Best part about this is that the ass breaks into your house sees the cannabis garden, steals half your crop, streals everything(computer, TV, DVD, etc). The grower is to scared to call the cops. The asshole breaking in makes a tip to crime stoppers and get a reward for the bust. If your going to give someone no other way of guarding there stuff and then have something like above happen to them can you really blame them? No wants to see a fireman get hurt and no one whats to see there stuff get ripped off... answer make it legal.
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Comment #2 posted by afterburner on April 13, 2003 at 13:00:25 PT:
Funny Thing...
how Justice Minister Martin Cauchon is so quick to introduce legislation to deal with the symptions of cannabis prohibition, but so slow to treat the cause of the problems by decriminalizing like he promised so long ago. The courts are unlikely to wait much longer while "Nero fiddles as Rome burns."ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.
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Comment #1 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on April 13, 2003 at 02:33:54 PT
LTE
Sirs,  Booby traps at marijuana grow operations are a dangerous problem, to be sure. But when firefighter Jim Lee says "By increasing the penalties it's going to be a deterrent", he is misguided. The current penalties against marijuana not only have not helped the problem, they are probably the cause of it. Our current policies do not allow for any legal way to acquire it, so marijuana consumers have no choice but to support the criminal market or try to grow it themselves. The danger comes not from the plant, but who is growing it. The Canadian government officials who set up a grow operation in Flin Flon Manitoba showed that growing marijuana does not have to involve booby traps and stolen power. The Flin Flon grow is the safest grow operation in the country. Why can't the government set up a similar system for legally regulated commercial production and distribution? Nobody is ever killed by a booby trap at a brewery anymore, are they?
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