Home Invasions by Municipal Bullies

Since I started this blog, I’ve been made aware of all kinds of weird actions taken by Municipal Authorities in their attempt to combat Grow-ops. It is a given that hastily constructed Grow-ops without any thought to safety or legality, (i.e. Hells Angels) can be a fire and safety hazard. Given no help by Health Canada in finding and inspecting the Licensed Grows in their spheres of authority, some have come up with creative ways to gain access to and destroy all Grow-ops, legal or otherwise. Bully your way in!!

Allegations have come to my attention from good sources I conveniently can’t remember (Alzheimer’s?) that there has been a revival of “posse comitatus” or Vigilante tactics in use to discourage and suppress all Marijuana Grow-Ops including Licensed Legal growth for Medical use. Its “modus operandi” allegedly is attributed to Fire Chief Len Garis of Surrey, BC the primary opponent of Medical Marijuana. That may be wrong but I have had reports of remarkably similar raids in Port Moody, Toronto and in some Montreal suburbs but over 100 here in Surrey. The Globe today expands this to over 127 home invasions by the Geek Squad in Surrey alone so it seems to be a leadership by example set by Mr. Garis in his own back yard. The game is played as follows:

1. Having decided, for whatever reason, that some residence is being used as a Grow-op, some local Municipal anti-pot crusader puts on his Stetson and appoints himself Sheriff, and calls together his Bigger Bastard Bully crew of a Posse. This usually is made up of several individuals usually a By-Law Inspector, Fireman, at least 2 Cops, and a Technician from the Health Department. Having been assembled they now descend on the suspect residence usually with several City vehicles and a cop car obstructing the road.
2. When the unsuspecting resident answers the knock on his door, he is confronted by the Inspector, backed up by his Goon Squad, who announces he is going to check the premises for a reported grow-op. There are three possible outcomes: Innocent, Guilty, and Legal
3. If it is a complete mistake and the resident is innocent, they are usually granted immediate entry and the place is clean. There’s a shameful apology for the intrusion and they disappear.
4. If entry is flatly refused unless they produce a warrant they use the refusal for grounds for a warrant that can be printed out in the Cop car while they wait. It’s just a matter of time, any illegal Grow-op is doomed.
5. If the resident who answers says yes he has a legal grow-op but questions their right to enter without a warrant there is an immediate hostile response from the BBB boys.  Backed up by the Cops, they intimidate the resident and get entry. Verbal hostility and visible threat works, after all, the guy is legal, he has no problem. Right? Not!
6. Once inside, the Cops do not hesitate to destroy the plants, then determine their legality. 
7. Concurrently with the Cops violent destruction of six months medication, the other guys are busy doing their thing. The By-law Inspector is looking for the least violation but even if there is none to be found, there is still punishment for legally growing. It turns out the Health Dept Technician has taken several hundred swabs that must all be tested to eliminate the dreaded black mould that could be lingering, and to detect toxic environmentally hazardous materials. He is handed a bill for $1500.
8. The crew leaves. They don’t even apologize for vandalizing and destroying the poor bastards’ Grow-op and thousands in damages and there is diddley shit you can do without a ton of Legal Fees.
9. Three hours earlier he was watching TV; now he’s looking at a $1500 bill in his hand. He’s damned if he pays it and he’s damned if he doesn’t. It is straightforward Blackmail and he loses either way..
10. If he pays it he is submitting to an illegal fine and caving into pressure
11. If he refuses to pay and even pays a lawyer to get the charges thrown out, the illegal fee has by now been turned over to a collection agency who will badger him to death if he can’t afford more legal fees to make them cease and desist. His credit rating is shot all to hell and I have no doubt when he hears of it, Chief Garis will just sit back with a smug grin. Persecution apparently is his hobby.

The problem is that not only is this illegal and abusive of power it’s only copycat behaviour based on our fearless leader Stephen Harper’s contempt for the law. He even ignores the Supreme Court and does as he pleases when it comes to inflicting punishment and avoiding any attempt at harm reduction. He and Chief Garis share the same hobby!

Liars, Hypocrites, and Fake Christians?

Smee again:

Vic Toews  is a Liar, Hypocrite, and Fake Christian.

I could not pass up re-posting a comment by Kristen—T made in the Globe and Mail today re “Facing a backlash, Ottawa moves to retool Cybercrime bill”. I took the liberty of combining it with another and embellishing them somewhat

Vic Toews  is a liar, hypocrite, and a fake Christian.

He broke election laws in Manitoba and he plead guilty to the charge and paid a fine.

He represents a Bible belt riding and bases his campaigns on traditional family values and morality. He preaches and moralizes ad nauseum and claims he worshiped his wife.

Well in between his pontificating, preaching, and moralizing he found the time to fuck a woman 30 years younger than himself and father another little bastard to hide in the closet. All the time he was pontificating about the reverence of traditional marriage and the sins of affairs and adultery he was bonking his girlfriend. He could not keep it in his pants. As far as sexual predation goes, it’s my theory that he is one. Thirty years younger makes her a child and him a pervert who can’t pass up younger pussy.

That is Vic Toews. Lecherous Old goat, BS artist and proud member of the select Harper Cabinet.

What do child predators and the Harper government have in common? Just like Vic, they break their vows, inappropriately cross and violate the boundaries of others for their own selfish gain, and have no regard for human rights or consequences.

This bill violates the civil liberties of Canadian citizens. In many respects it is no different in its intent and its insidiousness than any other kind of violation. It's just plain creepy that Toews is exploiting the sexual predation of children - and victims - to further his plan, which has very little to do with apprehending pedophiles and everything to do with setting up a police state. This is the birth of fascism in this country. And people would be complete fools to fall for his pretence of caring about child victims. Everything about this government cares naught for citizens, whether it's old people, military veterans, or children.

Toews is typical of the whole cabinet,

Just another liar and hypocrite.

Blaine Barrett

The.Smee.Goan.Guy

How We Got Where We Are

A Critical Comment re History

The MARIHUANA Medical Access Regulations were never intended to create a viable system. They were designed to be and have proved very effective in preventing any diversion from the Defeatist Plan.

In ten years of operation the only thing that Health Canada has managed to do with the MARIHUANA MEDICAL ACCESS PROGRAM is to completely lose control of a market they created. They created the demand of 5000 licensees who need a source of legal Marijuana, but have made no effort to supply the needed product beyond a one source mail order system from Ottawa and Licensed Personal or Designated Growing. They decided on a one-size-fits-all policy, selected an unknown strain of weed as a product, set the price at $5 +tax per gram, and started issuing licenses. Then they sat back and waited till the wheels fell off. Today they are chucking the baby out with the bathwater. They are recommending abandoning the whole program and the replacement of all legal licensed growth including all Personal and Designated growth, with a system of licensed profit oriented private contractors who will now be able to sell at prices they set themselves. Total bloody idiocy!

What should the Ottawa have done?

   Six steps that common business sense suggests at a minimum:

1. If you are going to start a Medical Marijuana program that is going to create a national demand for product then you should have lots of that product available.
2. If there are variations of the product available with differing degrees of benefit to the user, offer as many variations as possible
3. Having decided your offering you now set the price of the product usually on a cost plus basis.
4. Create ease of access by setting up a network of retail distributors across the country and a centralized online order system.
5. If physical facilities are required ensure that all Grow ops meet Code and legal requirements by establishing communication links with Municipal and Law Enforcement to advise what is being done to ensure compliance with the Regulations when an Authorization to grow is issued.
6. Design and implement an effective information processing system to process applications and render customer service to all licensees.

What did Ottawa do?

Steps 1. & 2. & 3.
They actually managed to blunder through items 1 to 3 but most stupidly. They elected to meet the anticipated product demand by contracting to Prairie Plant Products for a supply of one single strain of pot. That has never changed despite knowledge re potency and genetic relationships. They decided on a selling price of $5/gram and then burdened Prairie Plant with so much unnecessary product compliance and certification that the cost of production has exceeded the sale price since day one. The Marihuana Medical Access Program has been a constant loss proposition for Health Canada and I guess someone woke up to the fact. It was pointed out in the Auditor Generals Report for 2008 but got ignored.

Step #4- Create ease of access
Having gotten as far as step #4, they stopped and decided that since this involved personal medical knowledge it must be “Confidential” and everything suddenly was “Secret” or “Private”. The MMAD became a Blackhole for information in the middle of Health Canada: Everything goes in but nothing ever comes out! With that in mind Health Canada jumped to Step #6, set up the MMAD to handle application processing and administrative control. That has turned into the monstrosity that takes months to process all applications. Any sort of request regarding information about the operation of the division, or about procedures and the reason for delay is usually ignored or at best answered after an extended period of time that renders its utility useless. It is the imposition of this intractable devotion to Secrecy that has caused nearly all of the problems in the field today.
Secrecy has hampered and defeated the one good creation of the Program: the option for Personal and Designated growth. They condemned it to failure before it even got off the ground because of stupidity. At the beginning of the program marijuana was illegal and by and large knowledge of its use and growth was kept private and confined to a close circle of acquaintances. Health Canada suddenly became the middleman between user and grower: a classic supply and demand situation. You have a list of licensees looking for a grower to supply their need, and you have a list of growers with capacity who are looking for needy licensees. All you have to do is match them up. Not! Health Canada decided all identities are confidential, and will not release the lists to either side. Someone with infinite wisdom decided to slam a roadblock into the flow of information and so it goes for all other areas of the program as well. Nobody outside knows what the hell is going on in the Medical Marijuana Wonder World. Unfortunately we got where we are because nobody inside Wonder World knows what the hell is going on either.

Step #5- Physical facilities
Having slapped the Secrecy label in place, Health Canada completely avoided Step #5-the notification of Municipal and Law Enforcement authorities of the location of Legal Grow Ops. This has never been done and is at the root of a lot of the misinformation about the hazards that are blamed on legal grow ops. There is no doubt that grow ops pose all the hazards claimed, but it is also a fact that there is a very small probability that any threat to the community is the result of a Legal Grow Op. Remember there are an estimated 50000+ illegal grow ops in Canada and to blame less than 10% for all the resultant problems is an overstatement to say the least.
You can’t control what you can’t see and to not tell the police or the Municipal By-Law authorities is a masterful demonstration of short-sightedness. At this point in time the only ones who know the location of Licensed Grow Ops are the Bureaucrats running the MMAD. Confining the information to a bunch of useless fat cats who never get their arse out of their leather recliners guarantees the failure of the program.
Step #6- the effective information processing system to process applications and render customer service to all licensees

LOL!

The handling of applications and the speed at which it is done is one of the most important components of the system because the sooner it’s done the sooner the help gets to the patient. One day less of puking and pain is a laudable goal.
Having said that I will confidently wager that whatever system is proposed by the pundits will be a complete goddamned farce. Why? Because the people doing the revision are the same stupid collection of bureaucrats and political hacks that are responsible for the sick, sad, sorry condition of the current system. It’s the Cops investigating the Cops. Given the Harper government performance so far, I suspect the culprit will get a six month suspension with pay and a round trip ticket to Bali on an Air Force jet to handle the poor buggers PTSD.
For the past several years the history of the Program is one of extended wait lists that are completely unnecessary. They have a Goal of 8-12 weeks that they have seldom if ever managed to meet. I took the time to analyze what they had to do to actually process and application and cam up with a liberal time of 35 minutes to check and verify every blank on all the forms. I will not go into detail here and now.  I am wrapping this up but if you are interested I how I came up with that liberal 35 minutes take a look at  (TBA)  in the archive. It was a lot of bloody work! Worth a peek.