Be brave, soldiers of the cannabis war.

Most marihuana activists I know seem to be afraid of the undercover police. Whether we run a hydroponics business or are just plain old smokers, we are all afraid that “The Man” will get us. I understand how information about activists is gathered, and I will explain the manner in which we are all observed by the police and undercover investigators.

There are few types of people who are tracked, but let’s start from the beginning. The first type are the regular smokers… but if they are not otherwise involved in the "legalization" movement they are not tracked or cared about, but they are counted statistically, not personally.

The second type is the cannabis activist who attends rallies and supports the legalization movement. Data on these people is generally collected through photographs during the marihuana rallies. The police also look to the Internet for information on activists. Generally speaking, though, these people are seldom arrested if they never play a large part in the cannabis legalization movement. They are viewed by the police as harmless, and if they generally behave themselves no one pays too much attention to them.

The third type is a business owner who smokes and runs a business related to cannabis in any way or form, profit or non-profit. Hydroponics, head shops, cafés where smokers hang out and compassion/medical marihuana clubs are the main types of cannabis businesses/organizations placed under surveillance.

Canadian owners, managers, and employees of these establishments should stay away from crossing over the U.S. A. border during this dark time of cannabis prohibition. While this viewpoint may seem a bit paranoid, at this very moment the United States is attempting the extradition of Canadian citizens to the U.S., to be “punished” for running a cannabis business. If you work or manage a cannabis business, best to err on the side of caution and stay in Canada until the political situation changes.

Cannabis business operators regularly have to endure visits by teams of undercover police officers or informants who try to "score" weed, clones, crack or whatever illegal activity they can think up. They will not bust anyone themselves, they are just information gatherers “fishing” for a good catch. Police need victims for arrests to look good, and informants need victims for money.

Such “information gatherers”, day-in and day-out, buy marihuana from anyone to get information on that person. At the end of the day they simply forward the information up the “food chain of law enforcement”.

Bear in mind the cops will not close a place just because you sell weed or even crack for that matter. That would undermine the larger picture. The undercover team may decide to forward the information to regular police, but the police will usually only "bust" the place when they receive complaints about the business from anybody who does not like noise, smell or whatever. The police want their drug busts publicized to validate their war on drugs. So being investigated does not necessarily mean an arrest, there usually has to be some form of complaint.

Much information gathering takes place through undercover teams of two people, these days a female and a male cop, who simply make connections through being friendly. This is how we all make "connections", isn’t it?

Remember that the purpose of their game is to gather the information and pass it on. The biggest problem the surveillance teams have these days is dealing with 120,000 small time cannabis smokers, 55,000 small time activists and 25,000 small business owners and maybe 10,000 cannabis celebrities and/or “bosses"… and that's just the Toronto region. The purpose of this type of surveillance is not to bust everyone (since that is impossible), but to find "priorities". Those priorities can be based on the ability of the police to get enough personnel involved but more often than not are political.

There is a reason cops parade pounds of weed, illegal guns and stolen cars on TV. To “prove” that we live in a crime-infested city and the cops need more resources & money & power... again. If the police force was a truly non-political organization, they would have no reason to parade illegal stuff through the media, or make comments on drugs, since they are not scientists or doctors.

The bad news is most activists may and probably are under surveillance in one form or another. The good news? The legalization movement is so big now that the power brokers are unsure how to track us all. Judges, nurses, doctors, police and soldiers smoke cannabis, it would be impossible to simply arrest everyone... thank God!

So always remember, cannabis activists: be brave. You are surrounded by thousands, millions of other marijuana smokers all over the planet. And even some of the people who monitor you and me use cannabis themselves.

One day, soon, cannabis will be legal for everyone to choose to use, for medicine or just to relax at the end of a hard day’s work, instead of that choice being taken away by those in power profiting from senseless laws. One day, soon, the government will stop wasting money on an incredibly hurtful & useless “war on drugs”. One day, soon, everyone will come to their senses and demand leaders who truly want to build society up, not tear it down in a ruthless need for money and power.

markx

toronto420