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Killer Weed: Marijuana Grow Ops, Media, and Justice
Ten years ago, canada's public safety minister Anne McLellan announced that the federal government was committed to eradi-cating marijuana growing operations and that people who smoke marijuana are stupid.
"I see grow-ops as one of the single biggest problems we face in our communities,"; Anne McLellan declared.
That's hogwash, says Susan Boyd, a UVic academic, one of two researchers who have collected and analysed more than 2500 newspaper articles related to marijuana published in national, provincial and local newspapers in B.C. from 1995 to 2009 and she's concluded the widespread scare tactics are a government smokescreen for unwarranted invasions of civil liberties.
Co-written by Boyd and Connie Carter, a senior policy analyst for the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, Killer Weed: Marijuana Grow Ops, Media, and Justice (University of Toronto $28.95) documents fifteen years of exaggeration and scare tactics about marijuana growing fueled by a few vocal spokespeople, the RCMP and media.
Specifically, on page 146, Killer Weed discusses the so-called smart meters that have been forced upon BC Hydro customers.
Boyd and Carter conclude in their final chapter that the public is being duped into compliance with draconian, anti-marijuana policies. They cite the findings of the federal government's justice department's own study on marijuana grow ops that challenges claims made by the RCMP and media regarding organized crime, violence and public safety. That justice department report is corroborated by scholarly research - but the justice department study was never released. Boyd and Carter obtained a copy of the unreleased study from a reporter who received it following a Freedom of Information request.
"The second important finding,"; says Boyd, "concerns civil initiatives and by-laws, municipal multi-partner initiatives that have sprung up all over B.C. and elsewhere since 2004. There is little oversight of these initiatives as they are outside criminal justice.
"BC Hydro, the city government, police, RCMP, firefighters and electrical inspectors all work to identify high electrical usage, and then enter homes without a warrant, and there is an assumption of guilt rather than innocence. These homeowners are fined regardless of whether or not evidence of marijuana growing is found.";
According to the authors of Killer Weed, a fifteen-year drug scare about marijuana grow ops has helped to facilitate changes in federal law, mandatory minimum sentencing for some drug offences, including growing more than five plants (resulting in six-month jail sentences), as well as changes in the medical marijuana program (eliminating personal growing and designated growers), and changes to provincial legislation.
"We question these changes,"; says Boyd, "and the turn to law and order responses, many that contravene charter rights, and the impact on vulnerable populations such as youth, aboriginal people and the poor."; 9781442612143
"I see grow-ops as one of the single biggest problems we face in our communities,"; Anne McLellan declared.
That's hogwash, says Susan Boyd, a UVic academic, one of two researchers who have collected and analysed more than 2500 newspaper articles related to marijuana published in national, provincial and local newspapers in B.C. from 1995 to 2009 and she's concluded the widespread scare tactics are a government smokescreen for unwarranted invasions of civil liberties.
Co-written by Boyd and Connie Carter, a senior policy analyst for the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, Killer Weed: Marijuana Grow Ops, Media, and Justice (University of Toronto $28.95) documents fifteen years of exaggeration and scare tactics about marijuana growing fueled by a few vocal spokespeople, the RCMP and media.
Specifically, on page 146, Killer Weed discusses the so-called smart meters that have been forced upon BC Hydro customers.
Boyd and Carter conclude in their final chapter that the public is being duped into compliance with draconian, anti-marijuana policies. They cite the findings of the federal government's justice department's own study on marijuana grow ops that challenges claims made by the RCMP and media regarding organized crime, violence and public safety. That justice department report is corroborated by scholarly research - but the justice department study was never released. Boyd and Carter obtained a copy of the unreleased study from a reporter who received it following a Freedom of Information request.
"The second important finding,"; says Boyd, "concerns civil initiatives and by-laws, municipal multi-partner initiatives that have sprung up all over B.C. and elsewhere since 2004. There is little oversight of these initiatives as they are outside criminal justice.
"BC Hydro, the city government, police, RCMP, firefighters and electrical inspectors all work to identify high electrical usage, and then enter homes without a warrant, and there is an assumption of guilt rather than innocence. These homeowners are fined regardless of whether or not evidence of marijuana growing is found.";
According to the authors of Killer Weed, a fifteen-year drug scare about marijuana grow ops has helped to facilitate changes in federal law, mandatory minimum sentencing for some drug offences, including growing more than five plants (resulting in six-month jail sentences), as well as changes in the medical marijuana program (eliminating personal growing and designated growers), and changes to provincial legislation.
"We question these changes,"; says Boyd, "and the turn to law and order responses, many that contravene charter rights, and the impact on vulnerable populations such as youth, aboriginal people and the poor."; 9781442612143
Submitted on March 7, 2014 in By David.
