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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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[CAN] Legalize pot, a key drug fueling gang wars
#7628459 - 11/12/07 11:22 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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November 12, 2007 - canada.com
Legalize pot, a key drug fueling gang wars Policy of prohibition only helps organized crime pocket the profits from a multi-billion dollar industry
Simon Fraser University economist Stephen Easton said it best -- marijuana is the low-hanging fruit for organized crime.
The rise of gangs in this province is due primarily to the immense profits to be had from B.C. bud.
It is another reason the war on drugs should be abandoned as a failure.
The growth of the massive provincial marijuana industry is a study in market dynamics and real-life supply and demand economics.
It had distinct phases, from the initial rich kids who arrived with a couple of keys, to the days of trans-oceanic smuggling operations involving tons of dope, to today's mature home-grown industry.
The rise of the gangs has accompanied and been driven by the revolution in indoor-growing technology accompanied by the development of marijuana-specific breeding and nutrient regimes.
Today, with a little knowledge, a small investment and a bit of nerve, anyone can get into the marijuana game.
The more money we have poured into criminal law-enforcement, the more the pot business has flourished, and the more the violence that accompanies its black market has proliferated.
The profitability of pot ensures that even if we catch more and more people, there's always a lineup of eager new recruits.
Look at the thriving above-ground marijuana-driven economy -- the plethora of local hydroponic supply stores, nutrient suppliers, head shops, smoking lounges, tea-rooms, seed companies and bong emporiums. If the numbers Easton has generated in his research into the subterranean market are correct, pot rivals forestry as our most valuable agricultural product.
After more than a quarter century of the U.S.-led jihad against dope, it's easier for our children to score a dime bag than a pack of smokes. That's wrong.
Pot is a multi-billion-dollar industry and organized crime is its biggest beneficiary.
Cannabis in my view is a primary reason we are plagued by gangs. Cocaine and other illegal drugs play a role, but pot generates much, much more money. It is indeed the low-hanging fruit plucked by everyone regardless of ethnic heritage.
And there are many, many, many more marijuana consumers compared with users of other illicit substances, which tend to be niche markets.
The widespread illicit activity associated with cannabis production and the bucketloads of cash that come with it have created the environment for the current gang war in the Lower Mainland. The cash flow from pot pays for flashy cars, nightclub romps, retina-slamming wardrobes, guns, attitude... The number of people involved in the cannabis industry is regularly pegged at upwards of 150,000, making marijuana one of the province's biggest employers.
I believe it's obvious the criminal prohibition isn't working.
A new approach is needed and I think we should legalize marijuana as one element in our fight against violence and gangsterism.
There are many benefits of adopting a new regulatory model instead of using the Criminal Code to deal with cannabis.
Legalization would allow us to better control access to pot (the liquor store checks ID; the corner dealer doesn't) and do a better job of keeping it out of the hands of our children.
We could offer more effective anti-drug education in our schools by abandoning myth-driven programs that demonize cannabis.
We could better address health concerns about recreational use without threatening smokers with criminal prosecution and incarceration.
We could redirect the enormous legal and law-enforcement resources now aimed at pot towards true social evils such as people-trafficking, robbery, violence...
Legalization also would seriously injure organized crime.
It would throw many of those involved in the underground economy out of work.
No one would grow pot in their basement or attic if it were regulated in the same fashion as tobacco or alcohol. So say goodbye to grow-rips and the dangers posed to neighbourhoods by the current guerrilla gardeners.
Similarly, no one will be down on the corner if nearby there's a liquor-store equivalent offering various cannabis products to adults as if they were locally produced wines.
As Senator Larry Campbell has been saying for years now, taxes from legalized pot could be directed to health, education and law enforcement.
Let's stop giving the money to thugs.
Legalization will not eliminate criminal gangs.
They have their fingers in many pies -- extortion, kidnapping, fraud, armed robbery... But legalization will staunch the most lucrative income stream fuelling organized crime and the gangsta lifestyle.
The end of the alcohol Prohibition sapped the strength of North American organized crime until after the Second World War.
Legalizing marijuana would have a similar effect -- and go a long way toward eliminating our present problems.
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shroom_ninja
Stranger



Registered: 11/03/07
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Re: Legalize pot, a key drug fueling gang wars [CAN] [Re: veggie]
#7629829 - 11/13/07 11:02 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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Well summarized.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



Registered: 03/06/03
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Re: Legalize pot, a key drug fueling gang wars [CAN] [Re: shroom_ninja]
#7629881 - 11/13/07 11:10 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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I automatically distrust any article that says "BC Bud"
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: Legalize pot, a key drug fueling gang wars [CAN] [Re: Madtowntripper]
#7630770 - 11/13/07 02:04 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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> I automatically distrust any article that says "BC Bud"
That really doesn't make any sense. "BC Bud" is the common term for it and is in wide use in the northwest. "BC Bud" and "Beasters" are really the only two terms in use for it.
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billhicks
lostsoul



Registered: 11/04/07
Posts: 58
Loc: area 51 the mother ship
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Re: Legalize pot, a key drug fueling gang wars [CAN] [Re: fastfred]
#7630786 - 11/13/07 02:09 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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check out the movie hemp revolution ..its illegal for more then it just gets you high 26,000 uses and growing ....paper wood fuel food fire clothes and many more
-------------------- littering and littering and smoking the refer .im freaking out man
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Cannabischarlie
Resident badass


Registered: 11/28/05
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Re: Legalize pot, a key drug fueling gang wars [CAN] [Re: billhicks]
#7634289 - 11/14/07 10:05 AM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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First off, I agree with some of what is said here, but pot is not big business for gangs anymore, it may be some for "gangs" but most organized crime coming from pot is simply "organized pot growing/distributing" and not ties to REAL crime. And that goes for smugglers/growers of domestic and mexican product too. a truckload of cocaine will make ALOT, and I mean ALOT more than the same truck full of weed to say, the mob. The average joe brings in weed. The mob brings in cocaine and heroin, and meth. Second, as far as gangs go, its the same deal, for the most part. Marijuana is not big enough for "gangs" to be the number one thing. Most get pot, especially BC BUD or good homegrown from their buddies, who probably smoke too. Other drugs have higher penalties, but higher rewards and are generally more "crime oriented". That being said, everything else is pretty right on, the prohibition is worse than the drug.
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we could all use a little more sunshine.
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MonChe
RevolutionaryMonkey



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Re: Legalize pot, a key drug fueling gang wars [CAN] [Re: Cannabischarlie]
#7635234 - 11/14/07 01:36 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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90 billion a year in BC is not pennies.
-------------------- MonChe, Leading the monkeys against the tyranny of the apes in the Gorilla wars!
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DNKYD
Turtle!

Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
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Re: Legalize pot, a key drug fueling gang wars [CAN] [Re: Cannabischarlie]
#7641000 - 11/15/07 06:04 PM (16 years, 2 months ago) |
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You must have missed the point about "low-hanging fruit".
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