Cops to Train Civilians to Help Catch Grow Ops

I was listening to Tucker and Taz on FM96 this morning and there was a story about the police asking nosey neighbours to come to a conference to learn how to report crimes they see. According to Sarah Kelley the police are particularly interested in showing these people how to spot a grow op.

Now I am all for the public taking part in crime prevention, however if the police really wants to do something to prevent grow ops they should support legalization. The only reason grow ops exist is because growing marijuana is illegal, if it were legal the grow ops would be proper businesses instead.

According to the London Police Services website, the average grow op steals $1000 worth of hydro, and can generate up to $1million a year in tax free dollars. Lets assume an average tax rate of 30%, which is low according to Ontario’s own website. At that rate the government is throwing away $312,000 from each grow op per year. That’s not to mention the cost of enforcing the laws and incarcerating the criminals caught breaking this law. According to this Readers Digest article there are at least 50,000 grow ops across Canada, although it would be my guess that this number is a gross underestimation, at that number the government is throwing away $1,500,000,000 in income tax each year alone, that’s right $1.5 billion, and $600 million in uncollected electricity. I wonder what the cost would be if you added how much man power is used to enforce the laws, plus all the propaganda put out to cast people who use marijuana or grow marijuana as evil gangsters.

If the police want to stop the organized crime aspect of marijuana it is real simple, support legalization. Only through legalization can this stop. Legalization and regulation would make sure that the majority of marijuana grown would be for personal use, or by law abiding businesspeople instead of criminals.