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Monday, December 21, 2009
ALERT dismantles two marijuana grow ops in Medicine Hat
Two marijuana grow operations have been located by police in Medicine Hat following a tip from a member of the public. A total of 683 marijuana plants with a combined street value of over $600,000 were seized.
"While most Albertans are focused on preparing for the holidays, it is clear our law enforcement personnel are still hard at work,” said Solicitor General and Minister of Public Security Fred Lindsay. “Medicine Hat residents are safer today because of the excellent work done by ALERT’s integrated policing teams.”
On December 17, the ALERT Medicine Hat Integrated Intelligence Unit and Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU) executed a search warrant at 119 Robinson Drive SE. The search of the residence revealed a sophisticated marijuana grow operation with 451 mature plants that had been harvested just hours prior to the execution of the search warrant. Police also discovered electrical and water bypass systems that allowed the setup to avoid detection.
Further investigation led to discovery of a second, related grow operation at 148 Somerset Way SE. Investigators executed a search warrant at this residence on December 18, and located 232 mature marijuana plants being supported by a sophisticated electrical, water filtration and ventilation system. Investigators also found another electrical bypass system.
No one was found at either residence and no arrests have been made at this time. The investigation is ongoing.
The Medicine Hat Integrated Intelligence Unit and CFSEU are integrated police teams made up of investigators from the Medicine Hat Police Service and the RCMP. They are part of the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT), an umbrella organization established by the Alberta government to bring together Alberta’s most sophisticated law enforcement resources to strategically tackle serious and organized crime.
Posted by Matthew Johnston
Posted by westernstandard on December 21, 2009 | Permalink
Comments
Well good thing they got the crop off before the cops got to it. And no one got busted, double bonus!! Sucks they lose their equipment tho. I'll state the obvious, just for those who don't get it. Legalize pot. If pot was legal (and should be for lots of reasons)this wouldn't be a problem. Who ever it was would have paid his power and water bills most likely. In my mind, that was the only crime here. Somehow, I don't think the busts made the community any safer. In fact, if the guys had been caught, the long term effect may have made the community less safe, as these guys would get a better education on crime in school, I mean prison......
Posted by: Steve Bottrell | 2009-12-21 4:18:48 PM
Hey! I beat Zeb! Hmmm, better go see my doctor.....
Posted by: Steve Bottrell | 2009-12-21 4:19:48 PM
And in a jail cell somewhere, Emery weeps. GOOD!
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-12-21 4:30:51 PM
Smoking pot every day can permanently alter a teenager's brain, new research from McGill University says.
The results of the study at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre so surprised the scientists, they redid it twice. "We didn't believe in our results, so we did it three times. We always had the same results. All of the subjects responded in the same manner," Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a psychiatric researcher and McGill professor, told the Star.
Those results showed that long-term use of marijuana by a teenager decreased the compounds serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain, which in turn sapped the subjects of motivation and the ability to handle stress while increasing depression. The study suggests the long-term effects are irreversible.
"It means cannabis is more dangerous than we thought for adolescents," Gobbi said.
"It's not an easy message to transmit. In the last 10 to 20 years, marijuana was perceived as a safe drug. It's not easy to change this culture."
In the short-term, Gobbi said, there was evidence that marijuana in low doses increases serotonin, giving an "antidepressant effect." The long-term effect, however, was the opposite.
"This doesn't mean adults are not affected," said Gobbi. "But we didn't expect to see this strong an effect on adolescence" when brains are still in development.
Previous studies have tracked changing attitudes in teenagers who smoke pot, but Gobbi said this is the first to nail down the impact on "the neurobiology mechanism," or chemistry of the brain, when tracked against consumption.
www.healthzone.ca/health/mindmood/article/741512--pot-use-damages-teen-brains-study-finds
Posted by: Execute The Drug Dealers | 2009-12-21 6:31:13 PM
@Execute The Drug Dealers
Are you kidding? That's your reason to execute the drug dealers? Everything is bad for teenage brains.
Smoking cigarettes, alcohol, fast food, pollution, cell phones, iPods.....the list goes on. You got a problem if you do to much of anything. That is just more propaganda trotted out by the pro-prohibition crowd. It may be true, I'm not arguing that, but a very small amount of people would be affected like that. The good thing is, pot is not very addictive, so if you feel your being affected negatively, its easy to stop. I'm sure I'm wasting my breath.
Posted by: Hang All Prohibitionists | 2009-12-21 7:08:51 PM
One of those addresses is about a block from where my sons live, with their mother. They also live about 5 blocks from where the Richardson family was butchered. I'm starting to wonder if small town life is all that safe.
Steve, I hope you realize that organized crime controls the drug trade in Medicine Hat. There's a chapter of angels running the show.
Oh, and something else to think about. The girl who killed her family got an escorted trip through the Medicine Hat mall, just recently. Since I can't name her, let's just call her Miranda. Not that it matters, she can always change her name to Homolka, or something.
Posted by: dp | 2009-12-21 7:37:58 PM
Just how "organized" could they be? Two guys agreeing on a plan? That hardly conjures up images of The Sopranos.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-12-21 8:07:28 PM
@dp
I would bet there is a grow-op on the block your sons live on, maybe 2. And I'm sure the Hells Angels does have a hand in the production and distribution of weed in your area. Why not? The government handed them the market. But, I doubt they control it all, in fact I would be surprised if they had a hand in 10% of it. Most pot in my experience, is grown by average people and distributed to friends and acquaintances. There are dealers of course, but a large amount of them just have a bunch of buddies growing. I have never had anyone say they got it from the bikers. Do the Angels live in big houses and drive nice cars in your area? The ones around here don't seem to be that wealthy, in fact I don't even know if they are even around anymore. They used to be. Asian gangs are certainly cashing in, as you can tell by the many news stories that all seem to involve an Asian name. Don't see to many Jones getting busted for big time grow ops. But again, why not? The government created the market for them too.
And I doubt any of this had anything to do with those 2 killing the girls parents. That could happen anywhere and often does. Its a messed up world we live in.
Posted by: Steve Bottrell | 2009-12-21 8:51:12 PM
If people want to smoke pot fine! Is the report about its effect on teenagers true? Probably, and I bet that these negative effects aren't just limited to those under age 20. My opinion is simple. If you want to smoke pot fine! However, if you are strung out on pot and you hurt one of my kids I will give you the worst beating of your life! So, smoke away! If marijuana effects your health negatively then you have only yourself to blame. Just go over to a corner and die quietly(and don't expect my tax dollars to pay for your hospitalization). If when you are strung out on marijuana you hurt somebody, then I think their relatives have the right to go after you. So, smoke away and just make sure that you don't harm anyone but yourself.
Posted by: Andy | 2009-12-21 10:39:48 PM
Steve, a few years back, a low level drug dealer in the Hat came up short paying his supplier. He ended up in a pizza oven. It isn't all fun and games.
Mid-sized towns, like the Hat and Red Deer are often used by organized crime as staging areas. They have a lot more influence on the drug business than most people want to believe.
I'm not anti-pot, and decriminalizing would probably help eliminate some of the problems. Right now, it's all lumped in with meth, crack, and heroin, through the distribution network.
Posted by: dp | 2009-12-21 11:20:44 PM
The crime here is greed and stealing to make money to spend on yourself and probably putting other peoples' property at a risk they had not nor their insurers' intended. Sticking a 1000 watt bulb in a closet is a risk too that maybe isn't fair to other apartment dwellers. It's all very problematic I know and certainly due to prohibition. Pot should obviously be legal. The evidence is clearly overwhelming to show that. Maybe I'd have more sympathy for these Medicine Hat growers if they were donating a bunch of money to help out the movement but all I see is stealing so much to make so much. You gotta be a poor accountant to have to steal to show a profit in the pot business. I don't think you can justify stealing electricity to improve your life. If I didn't have to pay my ordinary house hold bill my life would be a bit better too. Am I wrong?
Posted by: Wilton Avenue Irregulars | 2009-12-22 12:22:34 AM
It's just like prohibition in the 1930's. When they tried to ban alcohol it did not stop anyone in the states from drinking. Demand remained high organized crime stepped in to fill the demand. Prohibition did not stop or discourage any one from drinking, it simply redirected all the profits from alcohol into organized crime. No matter how many beer barons and thugs the cops arrested, it did not matter because the prices were so high for alcohol, there were always more criminals and thugs waiting to take the place of those arrested. Same thing with marijuana, statistically 60% of Canadians have tried marijuana at least once in there life.
I want to legalize marijuana and regulate and tax it the same way we regulate and tax alcohol and tobacco.
Posted by: Sheldon | 2009-12-22 12:34:10 AM
DP is right. Small town cops are not a major match for slick professional populations of traditional organized crime groups. They are platform staging areas with many unsophisticated citizens eager to be associated with gangs and prey on their own. It works like that. Sally and Timmy with their five plants in Dads' shed are not of danger or threatening consequence. Sally and Timmy won't show the Crown Attorney a picture of his daughter or give a witness two hundred grand. Sally and Timmy shouldn't be the lightening rods for SWAT.
Posted by: Wilton Avenue Irregulars | 2009-12-22 12:37:35 AM
http://www.westernstandard.ca/website/article.php?id=3001
Posted by: KC | 2009-12-22 11:46:43 AM
"Traditional organized crime"? What is that supposed to mean? These people were nothing of the sort - they wanted to make a quick buck in an illegal activity. If they were truly organized they would have been more successful. It looks like they were exposed just as their product was ready for market. It shows what drugs do to people - they make you stupid, desperate and unworthy of freedom. Jail them. All of them.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-12-22 12:42:38 PM
Medicine hat is "run" by no-one its every boy for himself. every "deal" is its own . you guys watch too much t.v.
Posted by: guy | 2009-12-24 12:28:06 PM
Hey dp, a little late replying to this but here it is anyway,
"Steve, a few years back, a low level drug dealer in the Hat came up short paying his supplier. He ended up in a pizza oven."
How did the drugs themselves cause this? They didn't. It wasn't the drugs, it was the MONEY. It was GREED. And most likely a healthy dose of stupidity. This is the system we (meaning humanity) allowed to be foisted upon us. The monetary system is designed to encourage corruption, greed, and inhumanity. And prohibition just amplifies this problem. Until we can rise above this system, we are doomed to endless wars, corruption, and poverty.
Posted by: Steve Bottrell | 2009-12-29 8:14:37 PM
And the lure of quick and easy money through drugs had nothing to do with it? Pathetic. Absolutely, Ontario-level pathetic reasoning.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2009-12-29 8:29:18 PM
Of course it did Zeb, you retard. That was the point. Quick and easy MONEY. And why is it quick and easy money? Answer that brainiac.
You really need to check out the Venus Project. Not just the project itself, but the underlying theories behind it and maybe try and get an understanding of human behavior while your at it. In my mind, it is Libertarian to the extreme, and I like it.
Posted by: Steve Bottrell | 2009-12-29 9:41:49 PM
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