Police officials lied to toughen laws...

Police officials lied in cop killer case by Reverend Damuzi (06 Mar, 2005)
False pretext to toughen laws
http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/4213.html

With the bodies of four RCMP still being packed away in body bags, police spin-meisters were working on a way to make their coworkers' unfortunate deaths a false pretext for tougher laws on pot growing, reveals the police warrant in the case which was unsealed on Friday night (March 3).

It wasn't long after James Roszko, well known among locals as a psychotic gun-nut, shot four officers on an Alberta farm that the spin took hold. Early news reports, police statements and interjections by government ministers claimed that the officers were killed during a marijuana raid. But CBC News reported on Sunday, March 5 that in fact police were investigating allegations regarding a stolen pick up truck. CBC learned the truth after gaining access to the warrant.

The truth was that Roszko hadn't even stolen the truck. Rather, he'd stopped making car payments on the vehicle after a dispute with the dealership over repair work. During the repossession, a sheriff called for back-up, and the RCMP who responded stumbled upon a measly 20 marijuana plants, less than many legal medical marijuana patients grow for personal use. The officers also found piles of stolen car parts, and when they called for backup, they did not call the narcotics squad, they called the auto theft unit. The investigation was never a marijuana investigation, but government and police spokespeople have shamefully and opportunistically seized upon these deaths to lobby for tougher grow op laws, fraudulently claiming that it was a narcotics operation from the start.

The result: media throughout Canada have reported that the killing of these officers occurred during a grow op raid, sporting such headlines as "Drug officers cite dangers of grow-op raids" and "grow op maniac kills 4 mounties." Had police been more honest, the headlines instead may have read, "Botched raid, police supervisors to blame": for surely they should have known better than to send unprepared rookies from the auto-theft division into a situation so dangerous that most in the community recognized it as a powderkeg ready to explode - a serious lack of judgement on the part of police supervisors.

Tough new laws against growing

Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan is hoping anti-pot hysteria will give her the support she needs for even tougher pot laws, and now supports provisions that would force judges to explain lenient sentences for "major producers". McLellan would also like to see more money for narcotics enforcement and bigger penalties for growing cannabis.

The new provisions may be introduced as part of an attempt to split the proposed fake decriminalization bill, a push led by anti-pot Liberal MP Paul Szabo, who is infamous for his zealous support of tough anti-drug provisions in the 1995 Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Activists call the decrim bill "fake" partly because it would double the possible jail time for growing cannabis, while sections devoted to supposedly lightening up on possession wouldn't apply in most provinces.

Szabo's idea is to split off the sections of the fake decrim bill that refer to growing, further toughen laws against the practice, and then push it through parliament as quickly as possible. According to the media, Szabo already has the support of 13 of 14 ministers, especially McLellan.

"All of us, whatever role we play in society, need to understand the seriousness of illegal grow ops," McLellan opined, "that they are not, in any way, a victimless crime, that, in fact, most grow-ops are controlled by and run for the benefit of organized crime."

Ironically, McLellan seems to have missed the fact that with only 20 plants, cop-killer Roszko could hardly be termed either a "major producer" or a member of "organized drug crime."

Attack on pot growers shameful

Many Liberals disagree with McLellan, including Treasury Board President Reg Alcock, who said he would vote in favour of legalization.

"If we actually wanted to break the back of organized crime, we would be better off to control it," he told the press. "When you have these things underground, what you end up fuelling is organized crime."

Even Conservative Chief Stephen Harper had some wisdom to offer.

"I am reluctant to draw too many links between these events and public policy,” he said. “Legislation cannot avoid all tragedies. Whenever there is a tragedy like this, there are calls for immediate and drastic action. The left will call for more gun control, and the right will call for tougher penalties. But the truth of the matter: If someone dangerous or disturbed decides to engage in this kind of action, there's no world in which we can ensure that all of these things can be prevented."

The showdown came on March 4, at the Liberal Party Convention, when Marc Boris St Maurice, former leader of the Canadian Marijuana Party who recently joined the Liberals, figuratively duked it out against the likes of drug-war supporter MP Dan McTeague.

"I find it a shame that on the heels of this tragedy we have people calling for tougher sentences," St-Maurice argued. "It is, sadly, a lack of respect, I think, towards those fallen officers to boil it all down to marijuana. By doing that, we're not serving their interests. We're missing the boat altogether."

The convention considered both a resolution to legalize marijuana and another to make the laws tougher. Both resolutins were adopted but failed to make it to a vote on the floor. With any luck, attempts to toughen the laws by Liberal cabinet members will also fail.



Dan Gardner: For Years, Everyone Saw This Coming
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20325.shtml

"I believe the least controversial approach is decriminalization [of marijuana], because it's unjust to see someone, because of one decision one night in their youth, carry the stigma -- to be barred from studying medicine, law, architecture or other fields where a criminal record could present an obstacle." - Joe Clark, former Canadian Prime Minister, quoted in Globe and Mail, May 23, 2001

CN BC: PUB LTE: 'If Pot Were Legal,These Officers Wouldn't Be Dead
http://www.mapinc.org/newscc/v05/n381/a06.html?397

Canada: Stricter Drug Laws Called More Risky
Author: Betsy Powell and Joseph Hall, Staff Reporters
Prohibition causes grow ops, many say - Warnings against knee-jerk response
http://www.mapinc.org/ccnews/v05/n369/a07.html

Pot Not The Problem Here By Greg Weston
Source: Ottawa Sun March 04, 2005

Within hours of the horrific killing of four young RCMP officers by a rifle-toting lunatic on an Alberta pot farm, everyone from politicians to police and pundits was pointing fingers at the scourge of marijuana grow operations. "The issue of grow ops is not a Ma and Pa industry," RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli told a news conference Thursday night. Read More... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread20324.shtml



Casualties of the War on Drugs by marc schanz
You can murder, maim and molest and still get federal financial aid for college. But get caught smoking a joint, and you have to pay your own way; if you can afford it, that is.
http://www.weeklyplanet.com/2001-08-23/news.html

Casualties of the Marijuana War
It isn't just cancer and AIDS patients who are suffering because of America's anti-pot hysteria. Hundreds of small-time users are in jail -- for life.
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread5199.shtml

The Casualties of the War on Drugs Have Faces
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Will Foster 93 Years For Cannabis
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James Geddes 90 years for possession of 5 medicinal cannabis plants.
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Ganjawarnews: 5-11-4
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Ganjawarnews: CIAScapegoatingTorture, RummyCheney MKULTRA DeJaVu, MPPDay, ReeferMadness, CannabisSpray. DRCnet, Pieman, DrugsWarFailing, LynndieEnglandFollowingOrders

The Toxic Alternative to Natural Fiber
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Massacres are blamed on so-called "paramilitaries" rather than the regular army, this is a distinction without a difference. paramilitaries are just an "extension of the state. The paramilitaries act as a glove so the military leaves no fingerprints on the crime." "To say that our sending military aid to Colombia is not promoting these massacres is fantasy," "It is like a go-ahead to the death squads of Colombia."

United States' Answer To Drug War Proves Harmful
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War Against Marijuana is Crackpot
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Spoils of Drug War Forfeitures Prove Too Lucrative
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Government Property Seizures out of Control
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"John P. Walters is the United States Drug Czar, also known as the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He is the governments minister of drug policy disinformation, insuring that historical experience and scientific data do not interfere with the propagation of government poliicies on select drugs."
Pete Guither

Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do
http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/aint/toc.htm



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Editorial: Drug Activist Should Be Alive
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Web: Another Drug War Victim
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Fatal Condition
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Column: Peter McWilliams, R.I.P.
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Web: Murder In California
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Analysis: The Murder of Peter McWilliams
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Rainbow Farm Massacre
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Tom & Rollie Memorial Page
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The Playboy article on Rainbow Farms
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No Martyrs
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Fond Memories of Rainbow
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Rainbow Farm Outcry
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FBI Agent Kills Rainbow Farm Owner
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Friend Remembers Crosslin: He Had a Heart of Gold
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Police Kill Second Man at Rainbow Farms
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In Memory of Civilian Casualties of the Drug War
http://www.hr95.org/Memorial.html

Massacre at Rainbow Farm, September 2001
Tom Crosslin (left) and Rollie Rohm at Rainbow Farm, home of an annual hemp and music festival and a First Amendment political gathering.

 

Anti-Ganja Laws Archaic, Says Doctor
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Gil Puder, R. I. P. by Richard Cowan
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The Joseph McNamara Collection
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcntoc.htm

Time article
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,186579,00.html

Joseph McNamara is a former police chief in Kansas City, Mo. and San Jose, Ca.. He holds a doctorate in public administration and is
presently a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Stop the War - A Former Police Chiefs Plea to the New Drug Czar
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn1.htm
America's Plague of Bad Cops
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn8.htm
Anguish in Blue Needn't Become Deadly
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Bombs and the Bill of Rights
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Cops on the Dole
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Cop's View of the Drug War
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End the War by Anthony Lewis
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Has the Drug War Created an Officer Liar's Club?
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn6.htm
Reinventing the LAPD
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn12.htm
The National Guard is Not a Police Force
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn4.htm
Code of Silence Must Come to an End
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn11.htm
Holding the Line Between Pursuit and Punishment
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn5a.htm
Drug Peace
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn18.html
Shootings by Police - Broken Trust
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/shootings_by_police.htm
NY Times Letter to the Editor - April 18, 1999
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/debate/mcn/mcn19.htm

Just do Nothing!
http://makeashorterlink.com/?O29C52395



RAC...KET...EERING
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/message.shtml?1x36121

cops against the drug war
http://www.drcnet.org/cops/question.html

police chiefs question merit of drug policy
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Bonus Payment To Informant Draws Criticism
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Slave Labor Means Big Bucks For U.S. Corporations
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UNICORE
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Florida's Journey for Justice
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November Coalition
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F.A.M.M. Foundation)
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F.E.A.R.
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Spraying Program Hurts Colombia's Small Farmers By Scott Wilson
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Spraying Misery
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Have We Lost The War on Drugs?
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Like Vietnam, Drug War is Futile
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The Delusional Drug War
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Editorial: Time To End War on Drugs
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I LOST MY FREEDOM and can't find it anywhere linx
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Blindness of the Prohibitionists Paradigm
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Jonathan Magbie
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Canada's Supremes Cower Under DEAth Threats
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PM Says 'No' To Looser Drug Laws
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Marijuana Use Will Remain a Crime: Chretien
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Ganjawar:The product sold to fund Fascist' Piggies