Pubdate: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 Source: Powell River Peak (CN BC) Copyright: 2004 Peak Publishing Ltd. Contact: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd=1998 Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/734 Author: Shirley Gendron ILLEGAL CROP I'd like to express an opinion in support of alleged police action on Texada Island and other islands ["Island angry over raids," September 1]. It is a fact that the illegal growth and sale of marijuana is still a criminal offence in Canada, and police functions are to uphold the law. I sat as a member of Court Watch for long enough to see the pitifully inadequate sentences handed out for drug-related crimes. Days and weeks of police work to bring persistent abusers to court are wasted due to technicalities, the lawyers asking for just one more adjournment in a string of adjournments and the army of different judges we get up here. One can say the same for the care taken in case presentations by fisheries and wildlife officers, mostly wasted as abusers would walk free. I'm fed up with it and so are many other citizens. We live in a war zone and bad things happen in wars. Innocent people suffer. It's unfortunate if some windows on Texada were broken due to low-flying helicopters. Even worse if cattle were spooked and someone was hurt. I think police should do all in their power to track down criminals who don't give a hoot about the damage their product does to thousands of lives, to the incredible amount of break-and-enter and other drug-related crime in our community. If you don't believe me, just go and spend one day sitting in provincial court. In discussing this with a Texada resident who didn't see any harm in the main crop grown there, I said, "But it's illegal." I was told, "Well it brings a lot of money onto the island." What of the human cost of that money? In listening to the saga of so-called heavy-handed methods during a raid I said, "The people on Texada know who is doing this, why don't they turn them in and avoid police actions?" I was told, "But it's their friends and brothers and children." One can only hope that this person's own small children won't be victims of what too many of us ignore on our own doorstep. Shirley Gendron, Oak Street - --- MAP posted-by: Derek