PENALTIES FOR POT GROWERS RISING

Not only are local police officers taking down marijuana growing
operations in Kelowna, they are also getting results in the courts.

B.C. was once known as a haven for marijuana, where the RCMP were
reluctant to find, and charge, offenders and the courts saw fit to
hand down only fines.

But with both internal and international pressure to tighten up, the
courts have responded and it is now common for someone charged with
growing a commercial marijuana crop to face a year behind bars-not
conditional sentences in the community or probation.

Clarke Burnett, a Crown prosecutor for federal drug matters, said the
public has had enough.

"It is not just the police, it is the courts themselves saying this is
listed as a crime and there are stiff penalties being imposed and now
we are going to impose them," he said.

"It is what should happen; the courts react to society."

The confusion among court sentences was straightened out last
August.

A Supreme Court judge in Vancouver handed down a sentence of just
under two years to a first-time offender-a sentence which differed
greatly from previous decisions.

But the B.C. Court of Appeal scaled back that sentence to just one
year of jail time.

Locally, several offenders have now seen jail time. Raymond Calkin was
sentenced last June, to one year in jail despite having no prior
record of drug offences.

The Crown had agreed to a six-month conditional sentence, but judge
Wilfred Klinger tossed it out in favour of the heavier sentence.

He talked about the damage found to homes, the theft of power and the
risk of fire and electrocution to firefighters based on amateur wiring
as greater concerns to the community.

He also discounted the prevailing thought that marijuana is a
light-weight drug.

"Those who consider the effects of the possession and use of this
substance to be benign should read the predisposition reports prepared
for the sentencing of young offenders.

"Those reports all too frequently describe its deleterious effects on
young persons," Klinger said in his ruling.

The judge also attacked the myth that there is little adverse social
effect to the use of marijuana and noted the vast organized criminal
business of marijuana growing. A fine, as the courts had been apt to
impose, was looked at as a cost of doing business, he said.

Wade Jenson, a local criminal lawyer, said stiffer jail sentences are
not the answer as can be witnessed by their futility south of the
border.

"The RCMP has done a good job of instilling fear in the community with
respect to marijuana growing and that community concern, as it often
is, is reflected in some sentences being handed down," said Jenson.

Increasing the risks of marijuana growing will only increase prices,
making it even more lucrative, he added.

"It is feeding an industry-not killing it."

He sees an interesting social contrast as well.

On one hand, the decriminalization of marijuana appears to be gaining
steam and yet the courts are coming down harder on growers.

Jenson expects, because of the nature of the system, that those
sentences won't come down.

"Sentencing in criminal court is somewhat akin to taxes-it goes up
rather easily but rarely comes down."

Kelowna RCMP raided two more growing operations in rural areas
Thursday, bringing the total this year close to 20. Rough estimates
have 400 more homes in the Kelowna area being used to grow marijuana.