Guns, Drugs and Money

I don’t think you’re missing anything - it’s just a knee-jerk reaction. Our office-mate, who I’ll call iZak, predicted this reaction as soon as the horrible event was publicized.

The CBC published a story today with more details. The ‘grow-op’ apparently consisted of 20 plants. While indeed a tragedy, this seems to be more about a confrontation with an anti-social rural guy gone bad.

You’re not missing anything. I’ve often thought the war on drugs was incredibly futile and recently

Cultivation for your personal use should be promoted because it stops cash from going into the black market.

Growing marijuana for money is very different than growing it for your own use. We should all be allowed to grow about 6 plants if we want to, so money wouldn’t have to change hands like it does now. Less pitbulls, less giant grow operations, less violence. And a more cultivated society.

I’ve decided to make a donation to NORML Canada as a response to the killing of the four RCMP officers.

I’m sick of insane drug laws that lead to such crime, violence, and killings over marijuana.

Other campaigns in Canada to reform the law can be foundhere.

If you think it is time this all stopped, do something about it now. Write a letter to The Canadian Minister of Justice and let them know it is time for change.

Yo might as well make a donation to the Canadian Autoparts vendors association as it turns out this was not a grow-op just 20 personal use plants and the officers were investigating stolen car parts. The guys shot because they came on his land. He shot a kid with a shotgun before for coming on his land. He was a freak-show waiting to blow.

Grow-op bust led to killings, that’s the story. Too late for the facts now, when people think of this story they think marijuana. This perception matters more than the facts in this case; the story broke as a marijuana related slaughter. Did journalists sensationalize the grow-op angle or was that how the authorities wanted it spun? Liberals are talking tough on grow-ops, not auto part theft. Marijuana was blamed, rightly or wrongly, so it is the issue. So I fight the issue.

If you want to make a donation based on the facts as we know it, the Canadian Mental Health Association would probably be most appropriate. You might as well make a donation to CBC if you believe auto parts or marijuana caused this tragedy.

Fair enough but I would like to point out that you have captured the triumph of blogs in six words, Ken: “Too late for the facts now.”

There’s certainly been a lot of knee-jerkin’ going on concerning the pot, but I was also expecting people to jump all over this incident as evidence that the gun registry is somewhat useless in cases where it matters most. Was this guy’s “assault rifle”, or whatever it was, registered? Who cares about the pot?

Here is some reporting that speculates about how this tragedy was scripted into a war on drugs story.