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Current Affairs 2008 - Cultivation (105 items)
| Feb 14, 2008 | SN: Jury Returns Verdict In Massive Grow-Op Case Drawing comparisons to Christ, the self-described head chief of Turtle Island says he's being persecuted for making "medicine" at the request of the Creator after a jury convicted him and two disciples of growing marijuana.
"I'm a messenger. That's all. If they want to kill the messenger, they can go right ahead. They did it before with Jesus," an unrepentant Lawrence Hubert Agecoutay, who turned 52 on Christmas, said after the jury returned its verdict late Wednesday afternoon.
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| Feb 13, 2008 | PUB LTE: Grow-Op Not Like Mayerthorpe Contrary to columnist Iain Hunter's recollections, a botched "grow-op" raid in Surrey that resulted in seized cannabis plants being ruled inadmissible was not analogous to the botched stakeout in Mayerthorpe, Alta. ( "Judges must think police work in a fantasy world," Feb 9 ).
In Mayerthorpe, the grow-op was incidental to the investigation and entry into buildings had been made many hours before the four police officers were fatally ambushed.
The botched raid in Surrey was more like the botched raid of the vessel MV Bakur off the coast of B.C. in 2006, in which 1,630 kilograms of cannabis found onboard was ruled inadmissible due to improper police procedures.
Thankfully, the botched raid in Surrey was not like a botched raid in Abbotsford in 1999, when police burst into a child's birthday party with guns drawn and shot the family dog, or a botched raid in North Vancouver in 1994, when police entered the home of Daniel Possee and shot him dead for brandishing a remote control, or the botched raid in Montreal last year, in which the occupant mistook the police for home invaders and fatally shot police Const. Daniel Tessier, a 42-year-old father of two.
Matthew M. Elrod
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| Feb 12, 2008 | Pot Growers Question Validity Of Warrants A lawyer for a marijuana-legalization advocate known as Daweedking is one step closer to what may become a legal first in Canada -- requiring police to provide proof that informants they use to obtain search warrants are reliable.
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| Feb 11, 2008 | Let's Hope These Cops Now Have The Message I can't recall the last reported incident of a shootout or police death during a raid on a B.C. grow-op.
And yet coroner statistics show that, since 1992, 267 citizens have lost their lives in B.C. during police-related incidents.
One involved the death of a young man with a channel-changer in his hand. Police who burst into his living room fired, thinking he had a gun.
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| Feb 9, 2008 | NS: He's 'A Healer, Not A Dealer' AMHERST - A Maccan-area man who insists he has found the cure for cancer says he is leaving Canada for an unnamed country where he can live without fear of persecution or prosecution for taking and producing medicinal marijuana.
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| Feb 9, 2008 | Elaborate Grow-Op Defence One To Remember Agecoutay as much as argues he can grow whatever he wants. He claims to be chief and spiritual leader of his own sovereign nation. As such, he makes his own laws on his own territory. Among his legislative initiatives, for example, is the sale over the Internet of memberships in his First Nation for $10,500. The fee is justified by Agecoutay's claim that members are exempt from Canadian taxes. Three of his co-accused are tax deniers from out of province who met Agecoutay through his website. The other two are Agecoutay's brothers, all three residing on the reserve. Apparently there is some jurisdictional overlap between the Pasqua First Nation and Agecoutay's First Nation.
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| Feb 8, 2008 | BC: City Stands Behind Inspection Bylaw Richmond - The chair of the city's community safety committee is standing behind a bylaw that targets residential marijuana grow-ops, despite strong public reaction against it.
[Voters have to change their politicians, beginning at the local level and all the way up, if they want to be heard] |
| Feb 8, 2008 | BC: Appeal Grow-Op Ruling: Farnworth An accused pot grower caught a big break from a B.C. Supreme Court judge this week when his case was tossed out after the judge ruled the Surrey RCMP acted unreasonably during the raid on his house.
Mike Farnworth, the provincial NDP's public safety critic, has called on the attorney general to appeal the decision.
"I don't agree with this ruling," he said, fearing it might potentially hamper the ability of the police to take down grow ops.
[So what makes the NDP different from the Liberals or Conservatives? Why should anyone vote for them?] |
| Feb 7, 2008 | Pot Grower's Rights Violated: Judge A Surrey pot grower's Charter rights were violated when police used a battering ram to break down his door and find more than 700 plants in his basement, a B.C. Supreme Court judge just ruled.
Police are unhappy with the ruling, and hope the Crown will appeal it.
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| Feb 6, 2008 | BC: Business With Grow-Op Loses Licence Richmond - Operating a grow-op and keeping shoddy records were grounds used by city council to cancel a business licence and suspend another on Monday.
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| Feb 5, 2008 | BC: Drug Charges Against Victim Had Been Stayed Just nine days before Pritpal Singh Virk was gunned down Saturday, a series of drug charges laid against the Richmond teen had been stayed by federal prosecutors, court records show.
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| Jan 31, 2008 | Carousel Harvest Appeal [PDF] The Crown is appealing the ruling that allows medical cannabis growers to grow for more than one patient. For more background, see:
Ottawa Loses Marijuana Fight
Federal Court strikes down regulation limiting growers of medical marijuana
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| Jan 29, 2008 | Man Sues Police For Wrecking Grow-op The Saanich Police Department is being sued by a man who claims his marijuana grow operation was damaged during a police raid, even though he had a Health Canada certificate to legally grow the substance. ..."Ninety-five [plants]... is well above personal consumption and most of it would go bad before the person could smoke it," said Price.
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| Jan 26, 2008 | ON: Cops Post Grow-Ops New homeowners in Ottawa will know if their dream house is a former marijuana grow operation or crystal meth lab as of Feb. 1.
On that date Ottawa police will start posting addresses of busted drug operations on their website, following the lead of other Ontario municipalities that provide similar information to residents.
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| Jan 26, 2008 | Jury Shown Video Of 'Pastoral' Grow-Ops The three-hour movie is a compilation of seven video camera discs seized inside a teepee from which three men fled during a dawn raid on the site at the Pasqua First Nation. The Aug. 21, 2005 search, which included the RCMP's emergency response team ( ERT ), turned up more than 6,000 suspected marijuana plants, most of which were growing in six homemade greenhouses estimated to be about 60 by seven metres in size.
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| Jan 25, 2008 | BC: Grow Busts Multiply The second grow-op drug bust this year marks another in a series of crackdowns by police, increasing the number to a level never before seen even by drug officers. The second grow-op drug bust this year marks another in a series of crackdowns by police, increasing the number to a level never before seen even by drug officers.
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| Jan 24, 2008 | BC: Grow-Ops Contributing To The Rental Crunch Marijuana grow operations are a major concern for law-enforcement agencies, but perhaps they should also be troubling to renters. That's because the indoor farming of cannabis-a multibillion-dollar crop in British Columbia-may be contributing the rental crunch. According to police, growers often use rental homes and commercial buildings to avoid damage to their own property.
The City of Vancouver shuts down an average of 300 grow-ops a year, said Carlene Robbins, manager of City Hall's property-use branch.
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| Jan 22, 2008 | Tips On Grow-Ops Draining Crime Stoppers Marijuana Is Slowly Bleeding Crime Stoppers Of Niagara.
"We're not funded by the government, we are not an arm of the police," said Crime Stoppers of Niagara chairman Stu Black. "We get our money through donations." ...With some funding from the Niagara Regional Police Services Board, Crime Stoppers hosted a training conference in June that raised enough money to get the organization out of trouble.
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| Jan 18, 2008 | Condo huff: Don't Fear The Reefer Erin is a medical user of marijuana...She is also licensed to grow a little dope at home, with the permission of the government. I think that makes the condo corporation nervous. ...She is growing 18 marijuana plants - that's all she needs - in what used to be the closet of her bedroom.
[What will they do when more and more people begin growing vegetables indoors at home to help offset rising food costs?] |
| Jan 17, 2008 | Pot Decision A Good Step Good for Judge Barry Strayer.
Most have probably not heard of the man, but he's the Ontario federal court judge whose recent ruling allows the sick among us to more easily obtain marijuana for medicinal purposes.
No matter your stance on the issue of pot, the facts are it helps many deal with symptoms of diseases and live decidedly more normal lives temporarily free of chronic pain.
About 2,000 Canadians carry prescriptions allowing them to legally purchase the intoxicating weed.
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