Cops fear "extreme violence" with pot legalization

Corps leaders of the National Police are against the legalization of Marijuana cultivation. They fear that criminals will attack the legal farms "with extreme violence." This concern was voiced by deputy chief constable Ruud Blik, according to the Volkskrant, in a letter to regional bodies. Blik states that because of this threat of violence, legal farms would need permanent protection, which would demand extra police commitment. He reacts with his letter on the call that fifty municipalities made recently, to tolerate marijuana cultivation as well as weed sale in coffeeshops. Mayors and aldermen of the municipalities think it unacceptable that cultivation is now completely in the domain of criminals. Blik thinks that criminality will not be dealt with through regulation: "It is conceivable that the reorganized criminality will add to the 'ripping' of the 'legal' hemp plantations. The ripping of harvestable plants is a phenomenon that already happens regularly and is usually paired with - extreme - violence and high safety risks for the persons in and near the concerned hemp plantation (abuse, taking hostage, execution). The plantations must - in order to realize the safety goal - be guarded 24 hours." Mayor of Heerlen, Paul Depla, is "bewildered" and "disconcerted" by Blik's argument, the Volkskrant writes. "We want to take marijuana cultivation out of the criminals' hands with legal plantations. But the National police says: no, we're not doing that, because then criminals threaten to rip our plantations. Out of fear of reprisals we do nothing, then, and leave the marijuana cultivation in the hands of criminals. That is an upside down world, and unworthy to the rule of law", Depla said. Minister Ivo Opstelten for Security and Justice also wants to hear nothing about the regulation of Marijuana plantations.