Two US states are decriminalizing marijuana in response to ballot initiatives, and there’s a significant move to decriminalize pot in British Columbia. But here in Nova Scotia, the justice system is still prosecuting pot crimes as if it were Nancy Reagan’s America. It doesn’t matter that the vast majority of people—some polls place it as high as 70 percent—either have or continue to use pot, or that pot causes fewer problems than the perfectly legal alcohol or that in all probability pot will be decriminalized even in Nova Scotia in the near future.
So last Thursday morning, 120 RCMP police officers raided 14 sites in Porters Lake, Lawrencetown, Hammonds Plains, Cole Harbour, Dartmouth and Halifax, and arrested 29 people for their part in what the RCMP alleges is illegal marijuana grow operation.
Twenty-eight of those arrested face 97 charges, all related to growing, distributing and selling pot. The RCMP also seized 45.5 pounds of dried pot, 2,207 plants, about $250,000 worth of growing equipment, over $100,000 in cash, five vehicles and four long guns. While the guns were paraded in a news conference, none of the charges relate to the weapons.
In a news release, the force said the arrests involved 120 police officers and an 11-month operation. The arrestees will be in court on March 13. While the RCMP won’t say how much any police operations costs the taxpayer, the cost of this pot bust plus the subsequent court actions will certainly be significant, and the cost in terms of disruption to the lives of those arrested will be incalculable.
Typically, those arrested for growing pot are not very high profile, and have limited resources to wage legal challenges. The most recent arrests, however, involve some prominent citizens who by all outward appearances are living prosperous, productive lives. They include:
Tyler Rutledge, of Dartmouth, is the principal at St. Stephen’s Elementary School in the north end of Halifax. After Rutledge’s arrest the Halifax Regional School Board sent a letter to parents of children at the school explaining that there was no reason to believe the arrest was related to the school, but Rutledge has been suspended all the same because, well, just because. “It is important to confirm that your children are safe,” reads the letter. (See the letter here.) Cornered by Elizabeth Chiu, one parent told the CBC that Rutledge “seemed like a decent upstanding person,” using the past sense “seemed” because, evidently, someone arrested for pot couldn’t possibly be a decent person.
Ken Greer, Halifax, is a co-owner of the Hamachi Group of restaurants. Contacted by The Coast Tuesday, Greer said he’d have a statement Wednesday. Greer hadn’t released that statement by press time, but when we get it we’ll post it at thecoast.ca/bites.
Mihai Apostol, of Halifax, was a Romanian paddler who defected to Canada while competing in Dartmouth in 1989, and who represented Canada in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics. After his arrest, the CBC noted ominously that “Apostol has dropped out of the sporting scene, which is unusual for an ex-Olympian,” implying, perhaps, that pot, rather than disinterest or employment, was somehow associated with this supposed fall from grace.
Roger Stubbs, of East Preston, was the coach of the Eastern Shore Minor Hockey Association midget AA team. After the arrest, Stubbs’ affiliation with the team was removed from the ESMHA website, but it remains in a google cached version of the site.
Although not listed in the RCMP press release, Halifax doctor Dinesh Sinha was reportedly also arrested, allegedly for selling prescriptions for medical marijuana.
The others arrestees range in age from 23 to 62. None of the allegations against them have been proved in court.
Related Stories
December 27, 2012
This article appears in Dec 20-26, 2012.
120 police. 120! What a complete and utter waste of time and money. I’d like to see a report on how much overtime was put in and how many tax dollars were spent chasing around something that should be legalized, taxed, and HELPING the economy.
Conrad Black would not approve of this use of public money and resources.
Canada: Moving in the wrong direction since 2007
USA: Moving in the right direction since 2011
Having lived my entire life in Canada always being assured that as Canadians we have “moral superiority” to the USA, I am sad to say that they will be overtaking us in social issues. Its interesting and depressing that 29 people can be busted for pot and will now be alienated from the vast majority of people. I wonder how many people who express outrage about the principal in particular actually smoke themselves?
Oooh say can you see, O Canada you disappoint me. There is way worse out there, but you seem not to really care. As the cps go on raids, the south give it praise. Legalizing marijuana seems to be their fortay. oooh say can you see that country being backwards. For the land of the slave and no longer the home of the brave. ( to the tune of the American National Anthem.)
So they were nice people, okay(I’m sure each and every one of them was selling it at a loss for people in debilitating pain or pallative care). Ignoring the fear-mongering that the media so loves to wallow in, were they all still doing something they knew was illegal? Yes? Then I’m not seeing the problem with them being arrested for it.
Perhaps the not unsubstantial funds required to grow the stuff could’ve been used on getting the idiotic law changed instead of breaking it. They’d certainly be better off, and the fight to get pot legalized might be farther along instead of vilified yet again.
Boardwalk empire
I congratulate the police. Marijuana should never be legalized. It has destroyed countless young people.
Tax dollars, hard at work. This is what you get with an “integrated” RCMP and city police… Why no one else questioned the Federal police take over of our city force, I have no idea. Would you see the FBI running cities in the USA? Now we can all look forward to many more pot busts happening in our city. Yay. I know I’m glad the people perpetrating actual inflicted harm have much more competition for the police’s attention…
I don’t really blame the police, their guide is the law – but I’m wondering what the tipping point will be when more than 2/3 of the country supports decriminalization? How much longer can the government du jour so needlessly fuck up drug policy in this country before people demand change?
The people praising the cops in this column are totally stupid in not recognizing that this is part of a bigger scare campaign to get publicity and reinforce the deterrent effect of the new Harper-Toews back asswards approach to Medical Marijuana. Prosecute the merciful and charge the shit out the poor patients who will be forced to buy from the new budget balancing price. Illegal or unnecessary police involvement to destroy a medical benefit they couldn’t control.
Go to Goan-Smee.Blogspot.ca and get the truth with “Medical Marijuana with the SmeeGoanGuy”
Concerning Bo Gus; you have absolutely no clue what you are talking about. Lazy entitled youth have thrown their own opportunities for a desirable quality of life away because they are just that, lazy and feel entitled. For every pot smoking recluse that is eating at the west end mcdonald’s at 2pm there is a student smoking a joint, writing a paper or going to work.
I used to see alcoholics line up outside the money mart at 10am so they can get drunk and play the slot machines at the old copper penny all day. Yet our government approves this?
We don’t need saving…our province needs our voices. You need us.
Sincerely,
Halifax Youth.
Big round of applause to cops and prohibitionists for wasting resources and further enabling pedophiles, armed robbers, pimps, rapists, car thieves, etc. to do their “deeds” a bit easier. Fucking scum.
I’m with SwampDonkey on this one. Personally I believe marijuana should be legal to use (and grow), and I think it should be regulated roughly like alcohol (age and driving). But right now it is illegal. That the cops don’t nail everyone who smokes small amounts of pot is a matter of practicality; they don’t ticket the 99 percent of the population that speeds on the roads either. The behaviour typically has be egregious – well, guess what, running a good-sized grow op is sort of in-your-face egregious. Like driving 180 in a 110 kmh zone.
And I have a bit of difficulty believing that given the scale of the grow op, the money involved, and the number of people involved, that there wasn’t a bit of extra criminality involved as far as threats, violence and intimidation are concerned. Maybe the higher-profile individuals cited in the article insulated themselves a bit, and studiously turned a blind eye, but you can’t run a decent-scale illegal drug distribution enterprise and have it all be sweetness and light.
I think pot should be legalized. There is no logical argument against legalization. If you think so, I refer you to booze and cigarettes and while both can be detrimental to one’s health, I support both being legal. Just don’t blow your smoke in my face.
Currently, pot is illegal. You might might think that, because of this fact, the police were just doing their job. But if you think that is what just happened then you don’t understand how police departments allocate resources. Also, high profile drug enforcement actions, like this most recent one, act as magnets for more resources. This is how self-perpetuating bureaucratic empires grow. Too bad they didn’t manage to take down a meth lab or bust a prescription drug ring or snare a large shipment of cocaine bound for Montreal through our ‘leaky’ port. These are serious drug enforcement challenges here in Nova Scotia. But I guess busting some folks for growing pot for their friends and neighbours will have to do. A decision was made at a fairly high level that this investigation was worth the time and money spent and that other police investigative work should take a back seat.
Stephen Harper’s fear of widespread “Reefer Madness” is unfounded and unproductive and also just another example of how he and his colleagues are mishandling federal resources.
Also, because it is Christmas, I’d like to wish Stephen and Laureen and her RCMP girlfriend a very Merry Christmas and I hope they had the opportunity to spend time together during this holiday season.
For the record…..I’m not that “Smee” in the “SmeeGoanGuy” thing. fyi
REALIST doesn’t think it’s possible to be involved in the pot ‘business’ and still be a “Good Guy”? This puts him/her in the same camp as BO GUS! Totally miss-informed and influenced by the the perpetuated bullshit surrounding pot that pretty much started with that do-gooder Ms. Murphy so very long ago.
Look at the facts of the bust…..WTF! Do the math!
…..1.5 pounds per person? I’ve seen personal supplies bigger than that.
…..4 cops per perpetrator over 11 months?
…..$3,400 cash per person?
…..no chemical drugs?
…..4 hunting rifles?
…..no victims?
…..a restauranteur?
…..a principal?
…..an Olympian?
…..a coach?
…..a doctor?
This misdirected use of police resources is an embarrassment to us all. I feel sorry for the officers involved in what is essentially a total failure to find criminals after such a huge investment of their time and our expense.
Society never waits for the laws to change to move in the right direction. We take the direction and eventually the laws catch up. Meanwhile the bullshit bogs us all down and gets into everything…..even into the minds of good folks like a Realist in Dartmouth!
So what I hear is everyone wants it regulated. Great. From what I have gathered this was the legalized [part of the market and they broke the rules. So the legalizatioin argiument is moot here is it not?
This is rich as the largest users of pot are the cops themselves, go figure
Its interesting and depressing that 29 people can be busted for pot and will now be alienated from the vast majority of people.Systematically alienate cops and other members of the legal system.
Was that bust a success?
I don’t know how many police hours went into it.(?)
120 cops and 11 months – lets say the the average was about 250 hours times the 120 officers involved.
That equals around 30,000 hours to secure 20,000 grams of dried product (45.5 pounds).
That’s a little better than half a gram per cop hour. (a joint)
An average cop hour must be in the $80/hr cost range. (very conservative estimate)
So we spent $80 to capture less than $3 of harmless marijuana 30,000 times over!!
Wow! What a disastrous investment of resources!!
Like I said…..”an embarrassment to us all.”