Pubdate: Sat, 23 Dec 2006
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2006 Calgary Herald
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: George Kosinski
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

GARDEN HOBBY

Grow ops - Re: "6 kids seized in drug houses," Dec. 12.

Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart opines, "It comes down to organized crime 
and making profits. They will sacrifice their families to make a profit."

As everyone knows, many corporations, in order to make a profit, 
sacrifice the health of entire communities, not just their families, 
through pollution or destruction of the environment, and endanger 
their employees through unsafe work practices. Should the people 
running these corporations be arrested and have their children taken 
away from them?

Why isn't Colley-Urquhart agitating to allow people to grow a few 
plants for personal use only, which would eliminate the vast majority 
of grow-ops? Isn't that preferable to creating a society where 
parents can have their children taken away just because they're growing plants?

No doubt some individuals involved in big grow ops are unsavoury 
characters, but I don't see how the sweeping vilification of 
marijuana indoor gardeners in general is ethically any different from 
vilifying people for being Jews.

George Kosinski

Gibsons, B.C.