A bag of marijuana cost Brittney her life
Police arrest suspect in Brittney's murder.
KELOWNA, B.C. – Homicide investigators have arrested 29-year-old Joelen David Atish Verma in connection with the slaying of Brittney Irving who vanished in April.
Police said Brittney, 24, did not return from “an apparent drug transaction.”
“For the next several weeks, a monumental effort to find her took place. The search was not confined to just law enforcement and search and rescue but also involved her friends and family, as everyone hoped for a happy ending,” said police spokesman Const. Steve Holmes.
“This was not to be, however, for a few weeks later, Brittney’s body was found, and a homicide investigation was begun,” he said.
Verma of Kelowna, was arrested in Rutland, and was brought before a Justice where he was remanded in custody to appear in court. He faces a charge of first degree murder and a charge of robbery.
Verma is well known to police, however, he does not have a criminal record, Holmes said.
“Brittney Irving was in possession of a large quantity of marihuana on April 6th, 2010. She planned to meet with the accused, Joe Verma, that day to sell the marihuana. Brittney’s Ford Explorer was recovered April 7, 2010 on Philpott Road.
“Her body was recovered in a area that was not in the vicinity of where her vehicle was found,” said Holmes.
“Police will not be disclosing the cause of Brittney’s death, or the exact location of where her body was discovered, at this time.”
“This tragic event underscores the dangers of becoming involved in the illegal drug trade,” said Holmes.
“Those who are willing to invest their lives in this trade, will be bound to a shortened, wasted existence punctuated with despair. If they are able to pull free of its grasp, they will spend the rest of their lives fighting its enticement to return.
“For those who experience the trappings of the so called “good life”, it is short lived and balanced by forever “watching your back” and never knowing if the present day will be your last.
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The RCMP is committed in word, through education, and deed, through investigation, to the prevention, disruption, and dismantling of the drug trade and to protect society from its insidious, and deadly, criminal elements and effects,” he added.
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Posted by News Editor
on Jun 28 2010. Filed under Featured, LATEST FROM VANCOUVER.
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Legalizing marijuana will not likely increase local usage and will most likely reduce petty crimes associated with mj which is a good thing, you must remember that in the US mj will still be illegal and there is where our problem lies. We will not see a reduction in organized crime grow ops, they will continue to flourish and will have weaker laws against them as well as eliminating their local income. This is a recipe for aggressive export of BC bud. I am not worried about your average BC toker, it is the organized crime that we need to focus on and I believe we need to be even tougher on them. How can we legalize yet have zero tolerance for the Bacon bros?
There is just as much propaganda for legalization as there is against. There are facts that back up both sides but rarely do I read the ‘no legalization’ arguement from readers….FACT: of all the marijuana grown in BC only 15% of that is smoked by BCers, the rest is exported. Do you think the gang wars are over our minor patronage? FACT: Biggest import from marijuana export are guns, coke, heroin. So you would like me to vote against prohibition in order for the very few of us to smoke freely? And throw open the doors for export and more importantly, import? And live with even more guns and crack heads? I feel terrible for Brittney and her family but prohibition did not kill Brittney, she was dealing with an a**hole that would have ripped her off regardless of what her inventory consisted of as long as it had big $$ return.
The idea is that it is prohibition that leads to the money in this business. But what if you legalized it. Does that mean there would be more criminality or that more people would smoke pot? Smoking is legal yet it is going down – fewer people are smoking because of educational ads etc. So tell how there would be more guns and import-export if pot is legalized.
This is 100% propaganda and an opportunity for someone somewhere to force you into a rigid belief structure. Do your own research and realize that the media is here to trick you and put their endless spin on things to make money.
Very sad..
Another prohibition caused death. Stop lying and truly protect society from these insidious and deadly criminal prohibition laws. These are the dangers of creating an illegal trade. Cannabis is a plant. A herb. And if it was controlled like basil and chives, this would never have happened. Nor would millions of men, women and children have had their lives ruined or ended, by prohibition laws. All over a plant that can cure cancer, relieve pain and suffering, inspire, end dependence on fossil fuels, reduce CO2 emissions, create jobs, revive the economy, make paper, building materials and plastic. More uses than you can imagine. Instead we promote bigotry, hate, division, ignorance and lies, extortion, political corruption, gangs, violence, outrageous debt and a government that openly destroys the lives of American people. All the time blaming cannabis for the carnage the LAW creates.
End prohibition and restore freedom and political sanity in America.
Yeah, its the marijuana that killed her. A plant in use for 10,000 years which our body has built in receptors for and has been medically proven to inhibit cancer formation. Don’t believe me? Here’s an alphabetized list of medical journal articles proving the medical uses for marijuana (http://boards.cannabis.com/medicinal-cannabis-health/161539-granny-storm-crows-list.html). Stop lying to everyone and just confess, prohibition killed this girl, not marijuana. End the propaganda, cowards.
I couldn’t agree more.
We need to stop forcing this market into the hands of organized crime, where guns & knives are judge and jury. Time to end prohibition.