Police, Media Have Misled Public About Marijuana

By December 26, 2013Issues

The Globe and Mail is reporting a major discrepancy between what news media and police have been reporting about BC marijuana and rug gangs and the truth revealed by the Harper government’s own research on the topic.

The Harper government has suppressed the research and allowed the fictional tale constructed by police and the media to gain currency in support of its own non-fact based legislative agenda accordint to a new book – Killer Weed: Marijuana Grow Ops, Media, and Justice – by University of Victoria Professor Susan Boyd.

Police, media misled British Columbians on marijuana, new book claims

[excerpts] For example, the news articles she examined repeatedly asserted marijuana grow-ops are inextricably linked to gangs and other criminal organizations. Police spokespeople were frequently quoted explaining that modern-day grow-ops are not “mom and pop” operations.

But Boyd says the federal government’s own research does not support that claim.

She cited a Justice Department study that was completed in 2011, obtained by a reporter through an access to information request, that examined a random sample of 500 marijuana grow operations. Of those, just five per cent had apparent links to gangs or organized crime.

“This study wasn’t released by our federal government, and you could see why,” says Boyd.

“It doesn’t fit with their Safe Streets and Communities Act, which frames marijuana grow-ops as always being associated with organized crime and gangs. I would say it’s probably the reverse.”
[source]

Cover photo from: International War Veterans’ Poetry Archives

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