Man driven to marijuana by dangerous card game
Can a man be seduced into growing marijuana by a game?
From Canada.com:
A man who set up a sophisticated marijuana operation in his basement to pay off gambling debts will have to wait until May to find out the cost of his crime.
Trung Trinh had 287 marijuana plants in various stages of cultivation set up in four rooms in the basement of his Halifax Street house when police searched the residence in May of 2006.
Hal Wellsch, an agent for the federal Crown, said the man, his wife and their two children, aged 12 and nine, lived in the house, but the plants were kept behind a locked door downstairs. Trinh told police he started the drug operation early in 2006 as he struggled to support a family and deal with a costly gambling addiction.
The word ‘addiction’ essentially has two meanings. Originally, addiction was a scientific term referring to the need to ingest a greater dosage of a given drug to produce an identical effect. It referred strictly to a chemical response in the body and could be applied to substances like alcohol and tobacco.
The second definition is more of a weapon than it is an objective term. Today, a person who continues to engage in any behavior to a degree that society thinks is excessive is considered an addict. Now people supposedly suffer from porn addiction, sex addiction, and all sorts of other behavioral “problems.”
The new definition of addiction is medically meaningless but socially critical. It functions as the modern scarlet letter for those who engage in some behaviors, while it provides a convenient rationalization for those who prefer other “addictive” behaviors.
So when Rush Limbaugh is found to be living on opioids, we consider it an illness. When a Kennedy gets drunk or swallows a handful of sleeping pills and goes tooling around town in his car, we understand. And when a presidential contender states plainly that he was drunk until age 40, we applaud his strength of character.
Marijuana, it seems, is exempt from this public understanding. When a presidential candidate is found to have taken a single, uninhaled toke decades ago, it is a cause for national concern. And when a 41-year-old mother of two who suffers from an inoperable brain tumor, a seizure disorder, wasting syndrome, and other documented medical conditions treats it with cannabis, there is no concern or compassion. She is branded a common criminal.
California has taken steps to address this mockery of justice. In 2000, we passed Proposition 36, which changed state law to allow some nonviolent, simple drug possession offenders the opportunity to receive substance abuse treatment instead of incarceration. This program has helped over 70,000 people and California has not erupted into anarchy. Hopefully, California can serve as a model for other states and nations to begin to reevaluate their policies regarding addiction.
Until then, most of us will go on accepting the common line on addiction. So when Trinh tells a jury that he was driven to grow marijuana by an uncontrollable urge to play poker, we will not laugh. We will not wonder if gambling is a “gateway” to marijuana cultivation. And we will not condemn him for his compulsive behavior – as long as it is only gambling.
admin @ April 24, 2007