Does busting cannabis growers make people feel safer?

Well I guess people will feel safer in their lives knowing that the plants will be destroyed and all that cannabis won't reach the streets.  Of course most of those that want to but cannabis will get it anyway, others will step in to fill the ever-growing gaps in the illicit market, sold to them by dealers even more unscrupulous than this grower was in by-passing the electricity bill, maybe selling dangerous contaminated cannabis even to young teenagers, possibly offering hard drugs, avoiding paying any sort of tax on their profits ...  until they too have their operation closed down, and so on for who-knows how long?

And taxpayers are the ones to pay the cost.

Would it not be better to allow people ton grow their own in their own houses for their own use - would it not be better to allow licensed commercial cultivation and supply with consumer protection, separation from crime and hard drugs, for adults, with credible advice, good quality and known strength, profits taxed, some sort of control?

It would certainly save police time so they could better focus on serious crime that does put us at risk - then we may sleep better at night

Blackburn Citizen, 18 May 2012, by Vanessa Cornall,
Tip-off leads to Accrington drug farm raid

A TIP-OFF helped police close down a cannabis farm in Accrington.

Officers discovered around 50 mature cannabis plants and a ‘huge’ bag of dried ‘bush’ at an empty house in Stevenson Street East yesterday morning.

Mature plants and cultivated leaves were found in three rooms of the property.

The house had been staged to look like someone was living there, but it was obvious the house had not been lived in.

Springhill Community Beat Manager, PC Shazia Bibi, led the investigation.

She said: “We found two rooms full of plants and one room was being used to cultivate the drug.
“It’s hard to put a figure on the total of this find but it is very substantial and easily more than £20,000.”

The grower, had bypassed the electricity supply to run his lamps and transformers from the mains.

As well as the plants, police confiscated transformers, lights and fans.

PC Bibi said: “The house had clearly been staged to look like someone was living there. There were children’s toys on the table in the lounge for example. But a deeper search proved no one had been living there.

“We think someone has been visiting daily to water the plants and to open the windows.

“Our investigation will now focus on who had access to the house.”