Turns out, many here think handguns are fine as long as you are growing marijuana.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6812919&mesg_id=6812919

[dashrif]

1. WOW

and not a peep from some of the peanut gallery, over looked the gun and stepped on the daughter for telling on her drug dealing mom. Lucky she was not in Oklahoma guns and dealing = half your life

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

8. Interesting isn't it.

[Euromutt]

2. Gentlemen, let's take a reality check

The sheriff's deputies found one plant. One. That's not enough to sustain any amount of trafficking; hell, it's probably not enough to sustain anything more than a very light personal marijuana habit.

The fact is that the fully illicit marijuana market in the US is mostly in the hands of the Mexican cartels. By "fully illicit" I mean cannabis not cultivated by "mom 'n' pop" growers in states that permit cultivation and use of marijuana for medical purposes. An article from the Seattle Times some two weeks ago (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2010020934_potgrowers08.html) cites the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy as stating that, in 2006, the Mexican cartels derived 60% of their revenue--$8.6 billion of $13.8 billion--from sales of marijuana in the U.S. Most of this is grown in Mexico, but we've all heard the stories of cannabis-growing operations on public lands (National Parks, National Forests, BLM-managed lands) in the south-west, and those are cartel operations as well. In fact, the aforementioned Seattle Times article is about how "mom 'n' pop" growers in "medical marijuana" states are now the biggest competitor to the Mexican cartels, and the biggest threat to their profits. Anything that causes less money to flow into the cartels' pockets is a good thing.

Now here's another little factoid: home invasions occur disproportionately in residences which the perpetrators believe to house drug-dealing operations. Such homes are thought to contain large amounts of drugs, money, or a combination of the two, and if the robbers can't get cash, they can take the drugs and sell them for cash. But we also know that your average robber isn't the most intelligent person around (or they'd be doing something with a higher profit-to-risk ratio), so it's not unreasonable to suspect that if word gets around that you're growing marijuana in your house, even if it's a small amount for personal use or maybe to occasionally share with friends, some moron is going to think you're running a dealership out of your house, and will get some equally moronic buddies together to try to rob you. I can't fault anyone in that position for arming themselves against that eventuality, even if it is technically illegal (given that ATF form 4473 asks whether you're an illicit user of marijuana).

And it's not like there's a lot of documented instances of crazed dope fiends running amok with firearms; that idea's just Reefer Madness-style voodoo pharmacology. Booze and guns are a much scarier combination, given that alcohol can exacerbate aggressiveness (which is a major factor in Britain's violent crime problem).

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

4. My only real point was certain DUer's that are adamantly opposed to private possession of firearms..

had absolutely no problem with it in this case.

[tucsonlib]

9. Re: "certain DUer's ... are adamantly opposed to private possession of firearms"..

Which ones? Where? Who? Even if they exist, they comprise a tiny, tiny minority of DUers.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

10. I said certain DUer's not all gun grabbers.

[jeepnstein]

3. One plant? Meh...

What was interesting was the fact they took scales and packaging gear out of the house. As far as the guns go, well, that's something you use to stack on charges to get a deal. In most cases if you find a single plant you just take it as evidence and file a report.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

5. I agree.

[benEzra]

7. Depending on the "scales and packaging gear"...

those things may well have not been used in drug distribution at all.

Rest assured that we do not have any cannabis in our house, but we certainly do have an electronic postal scale capable of reading to tenths of a gram, that my wife occasionally uses for hobby stuff, and we certainly have plenty of plastic baggies in all sizes.

I suspect that most homes in the United States have "drug distribution gear", "bombmaking materials", and "encrypted communication gear" in hype-speak, if someone wishes to frame common household items in a negative way.

[Erebus67]

11. The whole scales and packing gear thing drives me nuts.

If they don't have enough weed to distribute how can the mere presence of "scales and packing gear" constitute distribution?

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

13. Don't know enough about the laws in the state to say.

[slackmaster]

6. Some DUers want people to die just because they own guns

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2742831#2745665

[ZombieHorde]

12. That is how I feel about Brussels sprouts. nt

[AtheistCrusader]

14. You'll have to pry the brussels sprouts from my cold dead hands...

or I guess you could just leave them there, and consider the problem solved...