cannabisnews.com: Rep. Thompson Seeks To Toughen Marijuana Law





Rep. Thompson Seeks To Toughen Marijuana Law
Posted by CN Staff on March 09, 2008 at 22:05:47 PT
By Michael Peltier
Source: Naples Daily News
Tallahassee, FL -- Southwest Florida has had a long history in the battle against marijuana trafficking and production. Its history is replete with tales of abandoned airplanes, bales washing ashore and remote fields scattered about.But times have changed. Just as biological engineering has improved the quality of such crops as corn, soybeans and rice, science has also had a hand in this cash crop.
Refined growing techniques and enhanced strands of marijuana have made the plant up to 15 times more potent than crops grown 20 years ago.While techniques have changed law enforcement has not. Enter Rep. Nick Thompson, R-Fort Myers, who is trying to update state laws to adapt to a changing illegal business.Growers now don’t need to find remote strands of countryside to profitably cultivate their crops for commercial sale. Armed with new technology, they can as easily and more profitably set up in a house.Grow lights, climate control and a caretaker to tend to the plants in exchange for room board and a little income becomes an increasingly attractive option. With potent marijuana selling at $4,000 a pound and up, many growers have learned that quality trumps quantity.The use of such grow houses have been on the rise in recent years.Florida is only outnumbered by California in the amount of grow houses.As of 2006, law enforcement uncovered marijuana grow houses in 41 of Florida’s 67 counties, according to House estimates.Under current law, investigators must find 300 plants to determine that a defendant was growing the crop to sell.Thompson’s bill would change that by reducing the number of plants needed to be considered a commercial crop. The measure is scheduled to make its last committee stop Tuesday before going to the House floor. A similar bill is traveling in the Senate.Thompson’- bill reduces the threshold to 25 plants. It would also make it a third degree felony to own, rent or lease a house mobile home or other structure for the purposes of establishing a grow house.The proposal would also bump the penalties up to first degree felony if their was a child living at the house and allow law enforcement officials to destroy growing equipment once their investigation is complete.“In Florida, those who use grow houses to traffic drugs belong in prison,” Thompson said recently. “Under this legislation we are clearly telling drug dealers, ‘if you grow, you go.’ ”Michael Peltier is the Daily News’ Tallahassee correspondant.Source: Naples Daily News (FL)Author: Michael PeltierPublished: Sunday, March 9, 2008 Copyright: 2008 Naples Daily NewsContact: letters naplesnews.comWebsite: http://www.naplesnews.com/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #11 posted by Hope on March 12, 2008 at 12:23:19 PT
RChandar
Be careful where you aim those words! You almost made "collateral damage" out of Sam with that weapon!(I haven't seen you that mad since you left Florida. I do hope things are going well for you.)In the famous words of Hannah Montana, I believe, "Everyone makes mistakes".As I recall, I may have made a few myself.:0)
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Comment #10 posted by rchandar on March 12, 2008 at 06:06:37 PT:
BGreen
Sorry. I apologize to Sam. Representative Thompson, however, is not spared as this is a useless, bogus legislation that serves to incarcerate our own people while letting the smugglers get off scot free.And thanks for that clarification. Again, sorry.
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Comment #9 posted by BGreen on March 11, 2008 at 21:20:10 PT
Whoa, RChandar
Sam was mocking this legislator, Rep. Thompson, not proposing his own legislation.Be as pissed as you want at this so-called representative named Thompson, as well as all of the dill weeds that voted him into office, but leave Sam alone because you've totally misunderstood what he was saying.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on March 11, 2008 at 21:09:31 PT
RChandar
Sam? Our Sam? He's saying the legislator who came up with this proposal ought to tell the truth about the real cost of his proposal and Sam thinks it's a very lousy proposal, just as you do.
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Comment #7 posted by rchandar on March 11, 2008 at 11:08:43 PT:
BS, BS, Godf #ing damn BS
Sam, Sam, Sam--This is Florida. And I take exception to your proposed law. And here's why:Florida is an ideal stop for narcotics trafficking, and we've known this for at least thirty years. When I was nine years old, my Mom and Dad used to take us to Cozzoli's, a pizzeria in Dadeland. A few days after one such visit, there was a massacre in that store. Rival coke gangs, that time.....MJ--and other drugs--are smuggled in from the Caribbean--Jamaica, Antilles, Bahamas. It isn't cheap bud, and it isn't small in quantity. Trinidad alone has an annual eradication sweep that nets about half a million plants each year. You do the math. Where does this weed end up? The United States. Through which state? Florida.And yet, you cut the Coast Guard's annual budget.THE REASON THAT I DON'T LIKE YOUR PROPOSAL: because you're targeting US residents. In other words, you will basically limit the amount of trouble that you'll cause for foreign nationals who are not citizens, but you'd be glad to cart off a few tens of thousands of taxpayers and family members--for 25 plants. Under your law, hundreds of thousands of people would be victims.And your fear of MJ is not enough to justify what you are planning. Florida has plenty of Feds who use the mandatory minimum sentences; there just isn't any need for you to put this added responsibility upon our state police and courts.
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Comment #6 posted by rchandar on March 11, 2008 at 10:59:23 PT:
Pure Political BS
Come on, Sam, that won't stop them from growing. I've seen several articles on this site that tell me that the FL growers have gone as far north as Georgia and South Carolina to grow their crop.Get over it, Sam. Already Florida has one of the worst MJ laws in the nation. Under your statutes, a guy with 20 grams is a dealer. Get over it, your side lost, we are not going away!
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on March 10, 2008 at 09:50:48 PT
Huzza, huzza, Sam!
Comment 2. So right!"Every proposal like this should be accompanied by a budget. The pols just go around like everything is free. How about "we need to lock these growers in jail, and my proposal will put hundreds and thousands more people in jail, at $45,000 each per year"."
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on March 10, 2008 at 09:46:07 PT
Sam Adams #2
Wonderful! If the thought of a huge increase in their taxes, cutting into their fixed income, doesn't scare these folks, then they are already dead!
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Comment #3 posted by duzt on March 10, 2008 at 08:46:06 PT
do they research anything?
after this comment, "Refined growing techniques and enhanced strands of marijuana have made the plant up to 15 times more potent than crops grown 20 years ago." I doubt it. I'm not sure what a "strand" of cannabis is, perhaps cannabis with hair in it. They could at least learn that it is called a strain and not compare the drug strains of cannabis to the hemp strains. Yes we have bred more strains, but no, they aren't that much stronger, we just understand the plant better now than before. And that doesn't change the fact that hash has been smoked for thousands of years which has always been potent.
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Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on March 10, 2008 at 08:00:55 PT
scaring the old people again
Here we go, southwest Florida is probably the oldest demographic in the US. Let's get the old people all scared again, before they die off and are replaced with toking baby boomer retirees. Which is going to happen over the next 10 years.Every proposal like this should be accompanied by a budget. The pols just go around like everything is free. How about "we need to lock these growers in jail, and my proposal will put hundreds and thousands more people in jail, at $45,000 each per year. Since we don't want to take this money out of your Medicare or the school budget, we'll be raising taxes accordingly, about $100 million per year.  Thanks."
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Comment #1 posted by runruff on March 09, 2008 at 22:56:52 PT:
More 2008 push.
The Repubs are in a hurry up and tighten up mode. They seem to see the writing on the wall. My guess? The ONDCP is using all of the Rebub goffers at their disposal while they still have them. This Thompson guy did not suddenly have some kind of epiphany. He got one of those phone calls from the white house that said, hey boy you are going to have a tough time getting re-elected in this antiBush, antirepub climate. We're going to give you some help and you are also going to help us.Thompson himself doesen't care about cannabis. Probably wouldn't know it from cabbage. He is a polition. A little irony here is that our ex-prosecutor, Tim Thompson was ratted out by his ex-wife in a nasty divorce battle. He had Grow houses with grow lights and care takers and at that time the going price was $5,000 per lb. He grew but he didn't "go" [to prison]. He got a nice quiet little transfer to a job up in Salem.I wonder if they are related? 
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