Detectives Find Sophisticated Goleta Grow

"The Laws Must Change." -John Mayal

Why must the laws change? So that you can smoke your dope?

Your right, the laws must change. Why should it be illegal for this guy to sell marijuana to your 12 year old Jr. High student? In fact, we should let the whole world get stoned. After all, alcohol is legal, and that doesn't cause any problems, Right?

Alcohol is treated as the health problem that it is. People are no longer incarcerated for alcohol. Without prohibition there is no longer any motivation for gangsterism surrounding alcohol. The prohibition against selected drugs, aka the war on drugs, is the root cause of the gangbangers roaming our streets and our overflowing prison system. It is well neigh time to turn from the failed war on drugs and adopt a new course.

I don't believe the comment about the laws was meant it should be legal for 12-year-olds (that would be up to the parents). But certainly, as LasBrisas pointed out, the so-called "war on drugs" is an abject failure. Many countries have decriminalized pot with little or no deleterious effect on the overall well-being of their society. When will the US grow up (instead of grow op)?

Saturated fat is way more dangerous, so is alcohol and tobacco. How about hang gliding or rock climbing, or big wave surfing or radical skiing. The list of dangerous things goes on and on. The point is total bans have worked poorly in the past and work poorly now. The same approach we take with alcohol: strict regulation (well the enforcement is pretty poor but the law is strict) and stiff taxes would get the huge profits out of the hands of drug dealers and criminals and get the profits into the government coffers. What happens there is up to us citizens to determine.

Never underestimate the willingness of people to medicate or alter their state of being if given the oppurtunity. We as a society are a decrepit and wavering bunch. If left to our own accords a demise will surely follow.

InTheKnow hit the nail on the head. It's not an issue about the war on drugs, gangsters or criminalizing these pot growing and distributing entrepreneur, it's about protecting society from itself. If you build it, they will come...If you make it legal, they will smoke it....Then where will we be. A bunch of thug drug dealers will be rich, still battling over which street corner is best for there legal marijuana co-op, and the people will be stoned, unable to hold down a job, poor and stealing your stuff just to get there next ounce of that legal "harmless" substance.

While we are at it, lets make crack legal too...Where do we stop?

"Where do we stop?"

According to the constitution we stop when one person violates the rights of another.

Other than that, you do not have the right to tell me what I am allowed to do on my property, as long as it is not affecting anybody else (i.e. I cannot molest my own children on my property), and as long as I am not restricting the property rights of others (i.e. I cannot pollute groundwater, watershed or air)

VoiceofSB, I find your comments extremely demeaning and offensive. I use cannabis medicinally and have no problem holding down a full time job and at the same time I am getting a 4.0 GPA in my graduate program. For me and many others it is an enabler, even for those who are not "seriously ill".

Life is all about choices. You cannot make them for others no matter how much you think you can. If you were more educated on this topic, you would know that the only reason crack cocaine exists is because an increase in potency was desired in order to hide the substance from law enforcement. These deadly substances become more deadly when prohibition creates substantial profits from the artificially high prices. These artificially high profits attract the black market that is always looking for a way to make a quick hundo o mo. Gangs will not kill each other when the profit margin for drugs is lowered to a competitive level. Do you see gangs killing each other to sell oranges or potatoes on the corner? Are they driving farmer's markets out of town? No. So your argument is completely worthless.

How did this so quickly degenerate into a discussion over the legalization of pot? The fact is that it is not legal to cultivate in these amounts and the police say there was no connection to medical marijuana. In fact, grows like this hurt the medical marijuana movement when people fail to obey that law, grow way over the legal amount, and then well meaning proponents of legalization spring to their defense. The guy broke the law in a big way and got caught. This wasn't a housewife unlawfully growing a few plants. How can anyone have sympathy for him?

Not to mention that he will doubtless use a medical marijuana defense, further hurting the movement when people associate this profiteer with legal growers.