Pubdate: Mon, 30 Dec 2013
Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Kamloops Daily News
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/679
Note: We Say editorials represent the viewpoint of The Daily News and 
are written by publisher Tim Shoults, editor Tracy Gilchrist, 
reporters Mike Youds and Cam Fortems, or associate editors Dan Spark 
and Mark Rogers.

POT LAWS CREATE ENVIRONMENT FOR VIOLENCE

Although an appeal remains a possibility, the guilty verdict against
Roy Fraser on first- and second-degree murder charges has brought an
end to nearly five years of trauma for the families of Damien Marks
and Ken Yaretz Jr.

Fraser was given a life sentence, with no chance of parole for 25
years after being found guilty of murdering the two men and burying
them on his property.

While the Crown did not have to provide a motive for the killings - in
a case built on circumstantial evidence - it nonetheless theorized
Fraser killed Yaretz Jr., a gang associate and bully, out of a mix of
fear and anger.

Prosecutors said Fraser then killed Marks, the only
witness.

Fear and anger were the motives, but the economics of marijuana
underpinned the events of five years ago.

The Conservative government continues a war on drugs mentality
originated in the U.S.

Ironically, as the U.S. moves away from the model - evidenced by
legalization of marijuana in Washington and Colorado - the Stephen
Harper Tories steadfastly continue to foster the black market on pot.

The trial heard that Fraser, who called himself a small-time grower,
made $180,000 in little over a year at the Knouff Lake property. It
was equipped with an underground bunker. Not far away, Yaretz Jr. and
Fraser planned another grow-op.

How many grow-ops are in Knouff Lake and rural Barriere today? Tens
more? Hundreds?

With the kind of profits made by Fraser, and in a world where the
newest generation is paid less than their parents and housing costs
are at an all-time high, it's no wonder grow-ops populate our cities
and towns. Unfortunately, the suppliers, brokers and security guards
are violent gangsters who take the profits.

During the trial, the underpinnings of the marijuana economy came up
again and again: bypassing B.C. Hydro, renting rural properties for
grow-ops, and loans of grow-op equipment from gangsters.

While the trial heard that Yaretz Jr. and Marks dabbled in cocaine,
it's clear that marijuana provides the fuel for that drug through
cross-border trade and easy money.

If marijuana were legal, licensed and controlled by government, the
underground pot economy would disappear. With it would go much
violence, including the kind that killed buddies Damien Marks and Ken
Yaretz Jr.

Thus far, only the federal Liberals under Justin Trudeau are promoting
legalization, a policy, while just and smart, leaves them open to the
kind of smear politics the Conservatives have used with success. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D