There will be a lot of smiling and nodding and happy faces at the news that federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq is taking aim at marijuana growers who are hiding behind current laws to operate illegal drug businesses.
Nobody wants illegal grow-ops in their neighbourhoods or in their communities. We all pay for the electricity they steal. We all pay for the service costs they dodge.
Nobody wants the dangers associated with living next door to such operations. There is always the very real risk that their colleagues in crime will bring violence to their “place of business” — which can easily spill onto the streets as they “protect their interests” or into nearby homes through “mistaken identity” or even into local shopping malls as they engage in open battle.
Police officers risk their lives trying to protect innocent bystanders and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Firefighters face grave risks when they all too often have to deal with grow-op fires — or fires in legitimate homes that they might fear could be grow-ops.
We all pay the social costs. And we all are eager to shed those costs — or at least make those who force that burden on us pay.
Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times
