FruityBud
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The OPP announced recently there are over 100,000 less pot plants due to their annual Marijuana Eradication Program.
So theres an annual Marijuana Eradication Program?
To counteract what cops are calling a marijuana epidemic (insert swine flu pun here), this summer a task force of 15 units, 78 narcs and three choppers swept the province for forbidden foliage.
The operation harvested 220 investigations, and asset seizure records show 73 sites, the vast majority of which being indoor set-ups.
The numbers sound impressive, but when placed beside years past (101 seizures in 2008), not so much.
And the OPP knows it.
These are big business operations, says Commissioner and former Toronto Chief Julian Fantino. Were absolutely too soft.
If you look at the Americans, he says, theyre much more serious about this, they recognize its a commodity thats exchanged for cocaine and guns that end up in our community.
Pot prohibition enforcement comprises 60 per cent of the police's Drug Enforcement Section (DES) workload throughout the year, and this three-month program alone set the force back over $200 grand.
So to placate the inevitable "Christ, its just weed!" argument, Fantino painted gruesome mental pictures of illegal-immigrant staffed weed farms whose sole purpose for production is the international exchange for crack and heroin to be sold to the dregs of society, giving them the energy for home invasions and child-rape.
In an interview following the press conference, Fantino made clear he wasnt at all interested in engaging the legalization or harm reduction debates. If thats what the government wants to do then theyre going to have to deal with it, he said. I dont get into that.
No doubt theres evidence to support Fantinos theory of a connection between Ontario pot growers and an illusive syndicate of international opiate and arms dealers. To be fair, the investigation did yield pictures of some medieval snare-traps lining some of larger marijuana fields would have made Noriega proud.
But just to make sure theres at least some spill-over into the hometown market, we enlisted the wisdom of a local herbal entrepreneur for a sober second thought.
All of it is grown to sell here, said a source, whos asked to remain anonymous, refuting Fantino's claims of an international market for Ontario herb.
Our source claims to have been apart of a relatively small syndicate of "farmers" who occupy 30 locations, producing over 700 plants by summers end.
The DESs above-the-fold claim for this years operation includes 56 arrests and over a $100 million removed from the supposed syndicate.
Last summer, our marijuana man planted a small share of the 700 plants, raised them to adulthood and gathered them from the field. It took nearly the whole summer, as plants were just ready for harvesting right before he left for school.
[Harvesting is] the hardest part, says our source, adding that being in possession of the plants is where most people get caught.
But being busted isnt as big an issue as the police make you think. Its easy not to get caught because nobodys dumb enough to grow on their own property. [The police] basically have to catch you in the act.
As for the traps, he pointed out that theft is inevitable, par for the course. He argues victims of trip wires and false floors more than likely werent five kilometres into the bush to bird watch.
The OPPs enigmatic admission of defeats best put in perspective by the late, great William Hicks, who pointed out that no matter what you call the war on drugs, it always seems to be the people on drugs who are winning it.
hxxp://tinyurl.com/ydzv9vd
So theres an annual Marijuana Eradication Program?
To counteract what cops are calling a marijuana epidemic (insert swine flu pun here), this summer a task force of 15 units, 78 narcs and three choppers swept the province for forbidden foliage.
The operation harvested 220 investigations, and asset seizure records show 73 sites, the vast majority of which being indoor set-ups.
The numbers sound impressive, but when placed beside years past (101 seizures in 2008), not so much.
And the OPP knows it.
These are big business operations, says Commissioner and former Toronto Chief Julian Fantino. Were absolutely too soft.
If you look at the Americans, he says, theyre much more serious about this, they recognize its a commodity thats exchanged for cocaine and guns that end up in our community.
Pot prohibition enforcement comprises 60 per cent of the police's Drug Enforcement Section (DES) workload throughout the year, and this three-month program alone set the force back over $200 grand.
So to placate the inevitable "Christ, its just weed!" argument, Fantino painted gruesome mental pictures of illegal-immigrant staffed weed farms whose sole purpose for production is the international exchange for crack and heroin to be sold to the dregs of society, giving them the energy for home invasions and child-rape.
In an interview following the press conference, Fantino made clear he wasnt at all interested in engaging the legalization or harm reduction debates. If thats what the government wants to do then theyre going to have to deal with it, he said. I dont get into that.
No doubt theres evidence to support Fantinos theory of a connection between Ontario pot growers and an illusive syndicate of international opiate and arms dealers. To be fair, the investigation did yield pictures of some medieval snare-traps lining some of larger marijuana fields would have made Noriega proud.
But just to make sure theres at least some spill-over into the hometown market, we enlisted the wisdom of a local herbal entrepreneur for a sober second thought.
All of it is grown to sell here, said a source, whos asked to remain anonymous, refuting Fantino's claims of an international market for Ontario herb.
Our source claims to have been apart of a relatively small syndicate of "farmers" who occupy 30 locations, producing over 700 plants by summers end.
The DESs above-the-fold claim for this years operation includes 56 arrests and over a $100 million removed from the supposed syndicate.
Last summer, our marijuana man planted a small share of the 700 plants, raised them to adulthood and gathered them from the field. It took nearly the whole summer, as plants were just ready for harvesting right before he left for school.
[Harvesting is] the hardest part, says our source, adding that being in possession of the plants is where most people get caught.
But being busted isnt as big an issue as the police make you think. Its easy not to get caught because nobodys dumb enough to grow on their own property. [The police] basically have to catch you in the act.
As for the traps, he pointed out that theft is inevitable, par for the course. He argues victims of trip wires and false floors more than likely werent five kilometres into the bush to bird watch.
The OPPs enigmatic admission of defeats best put in perspective by the late, great William Hicks, who pointed out that no matter what you call the war on drugs, it always seems to be the people on drugs who are winning it.
hxxp://tinyurl.com/ydzv9vd
