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Only real value comes with legalization
Kootenay Crust
By Ian Cobb
A Vancouver blogger published in the Vancouver Sun is crying foul over the dollar figure used by RCMP in a recent cannabinoid bust near Golden.
And his moan is heard, by this editor/writer, loudly and clearly.
He’s completely right.
Blogger Dana Larson’s piece RCMP claim of a $500,000 pot seizure is likely not true assails media outlets, including this one, for not questioning the value figure of the seized drugs.
Larson wags about weed in his Sun blog and seems to know his stuff, so much so that he slams the RCMP and the gullible media for outright lying.
“This seizure had a wholesale value of about $37,000, and around double that amount retail. This is only about eight per cent of the RCMP’s claimed half-million value. But a press release about a $37,000 bust wouldn’t make headlines like a half-million dollar bust! Will the many media outlets and journalists who blindly repeated the RCMP misinformation about the value of this seizure learn a lesson from their failure, and be sure to double-check similar claims by police in the future?”
Larson’s complaint is valid and it showcases a flaw in modern journalism that seems to be widening as the need for speed in reporting continues to red line.
I fancy myself ‘old school’ and try not to report things until facts have been checked but the world of online journalism mixed with the press release lousy information stream tripped me up this time.
There was a time when I questioned every police drug bust and sought more information if my ‘gut’ or ‘nose’ or ‘brain’ thought otherwise. This I time I didn’t. I swallowed it hook, line and sinker and cranked it out. My bad.
Larson is spot on in his criticism and I for one will be dusting off my eyeballs and for good measure I might take my brain out and give it a good shake.
Now having said that, I must confess another truth.
I published the piece $500k in pot, Phoenix tears seized, which occurred near Field (outside of our coverage area) not solely because of the dollar value (ala ‘a big bust’) but because I was extremely curious about how readers would react.
Our Facebook page lit up with criticisms about the bust for the simple fact it seems many people are sick and tired of reading about marijuana arrests. Others are incensed at the arresting officer’s comment that it is “extremely rewarding knowing that we were able to keep these dangerous drugs from reaching the streets of our communities.”
As one person said: “Dangerous drugs? Are you friggen (sic) kidding me?”
Unless you’ve been living under the shadow of Donald Drumpf, you’ll have an inkling of an idea that marijuana legalization is coming to Canada as surely as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will spend our grandchildren’s futures into the mists of time. The blah blah has been made; it is now time to act.
So it seems a tad over-zealous for our police forces to be going whole hog on weed busts, even ones that fall in their laps such as the one at Field. That said, most cops would tell you that until it is officially legal, cannabis will be treated as an illegal substance.
I also know cops have been more lenient to cannabis holders in recent years, so please don’t broad-brush them on the issue.
And while we dither about pot, the most dangerous substance, besides stupid males in their 20s, is the one that is legal – booze.
Any cop from any era would and should tell you that the majority of crazy incidents they become faced with involve large amounts of legal, legal booze. Take that stupid males in their 20s comment and pour booze down their gullets and watch them lose their wilting wee minds!
Yet the substance that serves as much as a medicine as it does a diversion, remains illegal.
Our shiny new PM said he would legalize it. Was it just political BS to help get elected, as it was for Jean Chretien? Or will Trudeau show the leadership needed and wade through the primordial ooze of misinformation and paranoid nitwit BS and make it so there are no more stories about people being arrested for pot?
And bonus; it will create what will quickly become a billion dollar plus industry that Ottawa can place its well-practiced tax dollar sucking lips upon. Jobs lost in the climate of economic change that is impacting our communities will be regained in a new industry.
Please quit faffing about, Ottawa. Stop the madness.
By the way, at the end of Larson’s piece is a portal to Elizabeth May’s (Saanich-Gulf Island MP and Green Party leader) Petition to legalize cannabis. Sign it up and let’s create a MUCH needed new industry and stop the needless persecution of people by outdated, silly laws.
