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High Cost Of Marijuana
Dr. Paul Martiquet | PeakOnline | 07/13/2005

Each week we read about some grow op being raided in Vancouver or Surrey, or some other big city neighbourhood. Less often we read in our local papers about the same bust happening in our own neighbourhoods.

Fewer busts are the result of smaller overall population, not fewer grow ops per capita. In our small communities we are no less likely to come to grips with the problems arising out of the cultivation of illegal crops.

How big a problem are marijuana growing operations? According to a study published earlier this year 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 per cent. Though the numbers levelled off after 2003, production did not: "The amount of marijuana produced each year in British Columbia is estimated to have increased from 19,729 kilos in 1997 to a seven-year high of 79,817 in 2003."

Another valuable comparison comes from Statistics Canada, which found that the rate of grow operations averages 27 per 100,000 population in Canada.

In BC, the number is 79.

Some will argue that this cash crop is a boon to local economies because it generates millions of dollars of revenue for growers who, in turn, spend some of it locally. Let us accept that for the moment. But what are the associated costs to our society? To our communities?

Grow ops mostly come in two forms. There is the small-scale, sometimes considered a mom-and-pop operation that is mostly engaged in cultivation for personal use and perhaps some small profit on the street. The small operation is not generally linked to organized crime groups.

Commercial operations at the other extreme are typically highly organized, sophisticated and connected to organized crime. These operations are there purely for profit--and they will act to guard their source of revenue.

Whether small or commercial, many of these grow ops protect their crops. The UCFV study lists other hazards found in grow ops: weapons, booby traps, explosives, chemical products and other drugs. As well, fire is one of the most common hazards, as grow ops have much higher incidence rates.

(BuzzNote: These are not due to being grow-ops but to being grow-ops under prohibition.)

What about other costs to our communities? Leaving aside the obvious ones like smoking and encouraging people to use marijuana, we can identify many other negative results from these operations, including the mom-and-pop ones, by the way.

(BuzzNote: This assumes that people using marijuana is a problem to the communities. People using alcohol [a Canadian favorite] are the serious social problem.)

We will want to include the danger from electrical bypasses, damages to rented homes and firearms and other weapons used to defend against grow-op rip-offs.

As if these were not enough, we must add in the pollution from wastes generated by the operations. These include chemicals--fertilizers, pH-adjusters, bleach, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides--and all manner of plastic and equipment tossed into landfills or left out in the bush.

(BuzzNote: How is this different from the people who have lawns, gardens, and those who grow tomatoes and basil under lights indoors?)

In other words, while there may be some short-term fiscal benefit to grow-op money circulating in the economy, the social and community costs of growing marijuana far outweigh the minuscule benefits that might be claimed. As difficult as it is to measure many of these things, at least we can encourage some dialogue in our communities over these issues.

(BuzzNote: I hope that when Dr. Martiquet does his cost/benefit analysis he includes the costs of prohibition, which he seems to ignore in this article.)

Dr. Paul Martiquet is the medical health officer for Powell River.

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Tolerance4all

I went to the web site and found it very easy to submit an opinion. Please put your two cents in.

Yana Usdi

Be sure to be polite if anyone does visit, source, prove and explain rather than getting angry with them. There's a letter I plan to write as soon as I come up with the right approach that needs sent as well, DRC is trying to support a med marijuana patient and grower who was convicted for ten years and is due to be re-sentenced soon.

In situations like these where hearts and minds are at stake, or years of someone's life, we need to be real careful to present ourselves as the most reasonable and well sourced people in the debate. Anger and moral outrage though justified can be counter productive, make sure to avoid it if we can.

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LEAP Current and former members of law enforcement who support drug regulation rather than prohibition.
Drug Policy Alliance Alternatives to Marijuana Prohibition and the Drug War