Pubdate: Mon, 26 Aug 2002 Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC) Copyright: 2002 Vancouver Courier Contact: http://www.vancourier.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474 Author: Fred Bass Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1548/a10.html BASS VOTED 'YES' FOR GROW BUSTERS To the editor: With an inflammatory issue like marijuana, it is important that the Courier get the facts straight ("Marijuana motion a bust," Aug. 18). Unfortunately, the city council minutes that initially appeared on the city's web site were in error, so your reporter got mistaken information. Your article began with NPA Coun. Gordon Price saying that a staff report on options for the legalization of marijuana production would be a waste of the public's money. Yet the War on Drugs is a losing cause. Consider that the city now spends $925,682 on the annual budget for GrowBusters (counting both city hall and police dollars). Given that in two years Grow Busters has not touched 90 per cent of the estimated 10,000 grow-operations in Vancouver, that police have charged 35 per cent of the 1,114 raided growers, and that only a handful have been convicted, why would city council not spend staff time and money evaluating alternatives? I believe Grow Busters, though not a solution in the long run, is necessary in the short run because illegal grow-ops can be dangerous. They often pirate large amounts of electrical current, leading to fires and posing risk of electrocution. Children live, and are at risk, in 37 per cent of the buildings that house grow-ops. Grow-ops sometimes attract and support organized crime. The article states that "Bass and his fellow COPE councillor Tim Louis registered negative votes" against extending Grow Busters. When your reporter called, I told him that that I did not remember voting against Grow Busters. At that point, neither council minutes nor staff from the city clerk's office were available to me to verify how I voted. Council minutes now available on the web show: 1) that I voted to extend Grow Busters 2) that all of council voted for my motion "to ask the provincial government to request that the federal crown share with the City of Vancouver a portion of the seized proceeds obtained from all criminal activities in the City of Vancouver, including cash seized in marijuana grow operation raids" 3) that the NPA voted as a block against my motion "that staff be requested to report back on options for the legalization of marijuana production, specifically in regard to safely controlling production, experiences elsewhere and economic implications" Coun. Price says he did not get elected to change the country's drug laws. Here he seems to travel a different path than Mayor Owen, whose bold approach to street drugs has already captured federal interest and will lead to changes in federal laws. Fred Bass, City councillor - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake