Everyday there are new stories about people willing to jeopardize everything in the pursuit of growing weed for medical purposes, personal use, profitability, or simply because they are activists, rebelling against a legal system they do not agree with. The debate over marijuana has been raging for decades, and both sides have valid points. Split down the middle, many people want marijuana possession decriminalized while an equal number want to keep it illegal. In recent years, eleven states have legalized medicinal marijuana and some Canadian provinces have struck down the federal law that makes marijuana a crime. Nevertheless, even if possession and use is decriminalized, growing marijuana is still a criminal offence. In any case, while the debate over marijuana rages on, one thing is certain: marijuana is easy to grow and extremely profitable and will continue to flourish regardless of whether or not it is legal.
According to Detective Staff Sergeant Rick Barnum from Canada, as quoted during an interview with CBC News Online, "Barnum estimates that there may be fifty thousand grow-ops across the country: as many as twenty thousand in Ontario, fifteen thousand in the Vancouver area, with significant numbers in Quebec as well."
Gunboat Smith (LOC)
Smith Street, Warwick - no's 55 to 61 Smith Street
Medical marijuana usaBecause of marijuana's ease of growth, it can be produced almost anywhere in the continental United States. Illegally grown marijuana has been around for so long, growers have all the information for indoor growing at their fingertips. Elaborate plans and details on how to grow marijuana are available to anyone that has access to the internet. Dr. Paul Martiquet, the medical health officer for Powell River, explains the findings of a study published by the University College of the Fraser Valley (UCFV), "Between 1997 and 2000, the number of individual incidents of marijuana grow operations increased by over 220 percent. Though the numbers...