A canadian view on canabis

[beevul]

Inside Dope



"This is a job-creating industry. Trimming the dried flowers to maximize look and taste of the top product pays about $15 an hour for a skilled laborer; it takes ten hours for an experienced trimmer to turn out a pound of buds. Consultants get $40 an hour for helping junior growers."

"In the Kootenay mountains of B.C., Gary Bergvall sold lights from a 15-by-15-foot space in 1996. Now he employs 28 people and runs a factory that ships, each week, lighting systems as well as two tractor-trailers full of air filters. Could the activated charcoal filters be useful for absorbing the telltale odor of certain plants? Maybe. The lights? Bergvall is circumspect. They are used "for a special purpose, whatever that may be," he says."

"Marc Emery started a mail-order marijuana-seed business in Vancouver in 1994, moving 100,000 seeds a year at an average $3.75 each. Today the tax-paying entrepreneur sells 350,000 seeds a year, even though he has more than 20 Canadian competitors (plus rivals in Holland, Spain and the U.K.). Selling seeds in Canada is illegal, but just about no one is busted for it."

" Some police think the battle may well be over. Rollie Woods, head of vice and narcotics enforcement for the Vancouver police department, noticed indoor growers throwing out unwanted leaves and dirt at a site the city uses for refuse collection. He told the staff there to note the license plate numbers of every such farmer but called off his plan a few months later. "There were hundreds . No way we could track them all." At this point he supports legalization, if only so he can concentrate on Vancouver's growing crack problem.

"If it wasn't for pressure from the U.S., we'd just regulate this," says Woods, who has all of six agents pursuing the pot trade. Investing millions more in a crackdown may be of little consequence, he adds. "You could give me a hundred people, and it wouldn't make a difference."


This is pretty long as articles go, but gives the canadian take on it,
and really was an eyeopener for me.

[TexasMexican]

1. ashamed

I'm ashamed that our country isnt likely to legalized Marijuana anytime soon.

There is money to be made here and I feel that it should be us making it first instead of Canada.

I mean cmon historically wasnt it the Mexicans that first started messing with Marijuana and bringing it to the US with them, and here we have Canadians upstaging us.

We should be growing this stuff in the US, I'm sure it would do pretty good as a cash crop. We need to get in on the ground floor of legalized marijuana before all these other countries cut us out.

Also on the issue of "medical" marijuana (which wouldnt be an issue if it was all legalized in the first place) funny how some politicians say we dont need to legalized marijuana for medicianal (pain relief) purposes because we already have plenty of other pain killing medicine. Yeah I wonder how much more pain medicines cost compared to marijuana? :eyes:

Other than that I dont really have much of a problem with keeping the rest of the laws on the books. I'm not to fond of crackheads and the like.

[beevul]

2. Did you see

The dollar figures and economic values stated in that article?

Insane money.

"Other than that I dont really have much of a problem with keeping the rest of the laws on the books. I'm not to fond of crackheads and the like."

I sort of agree, but I believe that if folks who want crack and the like have a place to go, where it is sold cheaply, and with reasonable supervision/safety protocols, that any problems associated with it would be dwarfed by comparison to prohibition. Economically, socially, individually, I believe the "cost" to be much lower under a legalization scheme all the way around.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

3. great post

and you are exactly right. In many ways, AMerican prohibition CREATED the crack problem. Prohibition artificially inflated the price of cocaine thousands of times its actual value, and this necessitated a cheaper alternative. Canada is so far ahead of the US, and this is PARTICULARLY evident in their tolerance. The US claims itself as a tolerant nation, but we are no such thing.

[Abe Linkman]

4. What exactly is the "crack" problem you are talking about?

Is it the same thing as the "right-wing" problem or the "mean-spirited rich people...and plenty of Democrats, too" problem, or the "can't think
so use if this then this ____stereotype reasoning many people use" problem?

Just what is the "crack" problem that is causing you to be upset?

[SlavesandBulldozers]

9. i was referring to the

explosion of crack cocaine use in the 80's amongst inner-city african americans.

[Wonk]

5. Um, link? nt

[1a2b3c]

6. I second wonks request for a link. nt

[BullDozer]

7. the link

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2003/1110/146.html

[beevul]

8. Ack, sorry

Ack, sorry Guys, my bad.

Thanks BullDozer