Posted on 03/03/2005 4:51:33 PM PST by fanfan
4 Mounties killed at marijuana site Last Updated Thu, 03 Mar 2005 19:33:25 EST CBC News
MAYERTHORPE, ALTA. - Four RCMP officers were killed Thursday during an apparent raid on a marijuana grow operation in northwestern Alberta.
"It's my sad duty to inform you that four RCMP officers, four brave young members have been killed in the line of duty," RCMP Commanding Officer Bill Sweeney told reporters at a late-afternoon news conference. The Quonset hut that police suspect held the marijuana growing operation in Rochfort Bridge, Alta.
He said a fifth person described as "a male suspect" had been found dead at the scene.
Earlier in the day, Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko told CBC News that details of the trouble that broke out Tuesday morning at a farm near Rochfort Bridge were sketchy.
"As far as we know, there's four officers not responding to their radios, so there is an indication that something is serious here," Cenaiko said.
"[The situation] is still active and they have a number of resources that are on scene or going to the scene."
George Vanderburg, the provincial politician who represents the area, says he and Cenaiko were briefed on the situation around midday Thursday. News vehicles were kept away from the scene through the day while police investigated.
He could not provide further details except to say it was a "very serious and very tragic" situation.
Cenaiko's office had earlier said at least two officers had been wounded when gunfire broke out during a raid on an alleged hydroponic marijuana operation.
There was widespread speculation of a hostage taking involving the person or people allegedly running the drug operation.
Sgt. Rick Oncescu, who is with the RCMP in Calgary, said two SWAT teams were called to the area.
A military spokesman said about 20 soldiers and two armoured vehicles were sent to the area after police called for military assistance at about midday.
Rochfort Bridge is located near the 1,700-resident town of Mayerthorpe, where the RCMP detachment is based, about 130 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
i thot drugs are a victimless crime
Just finished listening to RCMP press conference via CBC Edmonton.
It hasn't, but it has progressed beyond its starting point.
you nailed it
and...???
Not bad. Fourteen posts before the first pro drug advertisement.
diddo...whats that all about
You seem to have been inflicted with ignorance ...
* Scientists at the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have turned their attention from the mysteries of the cosmos to a more esoteric area of research: what happens when you get a spider stoned.
* Their experiments have shown that common house spiders spin their webs in different ways according to the psychotropic drug they have been given.
* Spiders on marijuana made a reasonable stab at spinning webs but appeared to lose concentration about half-way through.
* Those on Benzedrine - "speed" - spin their webs "with great gusto, but apparently without much planning leaving large holes", according to New Scientist magazine.
* Caffeine, one of the most common drugs consumed by Britons in soft drinks, tea and coffee, makes spiders incapable of spinning anything better than a few threads strung together at random.
* On chloral hydrat, an ingredient of sleeping pills, spiders "drop off before they even get started".
* The scientists believe their previous work on the goemetry of crystals will help them to devise computer programs that can analyse web-building objectively in order to predict the toxicity of new medicines.
* "It appears that one of the most telling measures of toxicity is a decrease, in comparison with a normal web, of the numbers of completed sides [of a web]; the greater the toxicity, the more sides the spider fails to complete", the scientists say.
* Paul Hillard, spider specialist at the Natural History Museum in London, said researchers first discovered the effects of psychotropic drugs on spiders during experiments at the end of 1960s.
* The researchers fed caffeine to spiders in hope of making them spin webs in the late evening rather than the early dawn.
* The result was eccentric webs rather than earlier spinning, he said.
Not meaning any disrespect for the fallen officers, but what the hell are they still chasing cannibus growers and smokers for?
Don't they have any real criminals up there?
I mean like muggers and buggerers and rapists and murderers and I mean real criminals?
Oh yeah, that's right, I remember there is a lot of money to be made in the battle against the killer evil weed marijuana.
What with lawyers and drug counseling and reeducation and all the other b.s associated with it.
you got a point, or just a hat full of insults?
I have more insults I could heap, but will refrain, due to your condition...
and I appreciatate your backhanded insulting concerns,,nuff said? I too could come up with more, but I am out of school now and may be a bit behind
"My point is very simple. there is no indication that marijuana use causes violent behavior."
Four dead mounties seem to indicate marijuana has caused what most would call violent behavior.
The province of Alberta is generally very conservative. Most of Western Canada is, except in the larger cities(go figure).
Thanks for posting the article.
What I wonder is, will this be counted as four deaths from Marijuana?
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