Drugs raid ‘disgraceful waste of money’ (From York Press)

Good to see a return from Mr Clements, thought he'd given up.
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However, I disagree. I have past experience of both cannabis and travellers, and whilst Mr Clements is usually correct for cannabis, personally I don't think this was victimisation of travellers. I can see how the operation speaks well for the prohibitionists by demonstrating that drugs can be the domain of the criminal underclasses and I agree that 160 officers is well over the top. It wasn't Pablo Escobar but then again, like I say I have past experience...
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I suspect the reason only one 17 year old is being charged, is because he will have been put forward to take responsibility for the plants, probably being the one with the shortest police record on site. The real criminals will be closing ranks and getting away with whatever it is they do.
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With two of their number doing 7 years for heroin dealing as reported in the Press last month and counterfeit money on site, I'd be very surprised if this grow operation was to sort friends out, or a hobby grow for the medical user, it will have been for pure profit. Profit driven production often results in shoddy or dangerously adulterated goods.
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Personally I'd much prefer to see the production and sale of cannabis undertaken by enthusiasts and separated from the criminal element, the only way to do that is to do what Mr Clements has advocated for years - legalise and regulate.

Fair comments toorad.

The point is though without a doubt the obscene waste of public money in a massive drugs bust for next to nothing. 21 cannabis plants is hardly a massive money making venture.

To find two grand in cash on a travellers site is hardly out of the ordinary too. I Know some travellers are far from whiter than white, but there are bad guys in all areas of society, there are also good ones.

The point is, surely that in this instance the response far outweighs the public interest and the cost. Now that it is clear from the recent sacking of Prof Nutt, that drugs policy has little to do with science or fact, or indeed any potential harms likely to be caused and more to do with political dogma, and a continuing moral stance by the most immoral people to have governed this country in recent history.

How can anybody expect this government to legalise cannabis when they are stealthily working up to a ban on cigarettes and alcohol. They will have the health bodies constantly whispering to them in their sleep that they should ban everything that has any health implications, regardless of the bigger picture.

The Temperance movement is born again, looking forward to total prohibition and all the disastrous consequences that will entail. Maybe those handwringers in today's prohibition movement will have a lot to answer for. Remember we must protect the children from all these conciousness altering substances, after all what kind of a world would it be if people could all think for themselves?

If my memory serves me correctly, didn't the last such raid result in a large number of firearms been confiscated?