INCREASED PENALTIES BUFFER ST. LUCIE IN BATTLE AGAINST GROWHOUSES

It was almost a weekly, sometimes a daily, occurrence in 2006 in Port
St. Lucie: Police would discover yet another house that had been
transformed into an elaborate marijuana nursery, complete with secret
rooms and expensive equipment.

The trail was extensive, and the uncovering of one house almost always
led to the discovery of another one tucked away in Port St. Lucie's
sprawling residential neighborhoods. By the end of 2006, police had
shut down more than 65 marijuana grow houses in the city.

The discoveries have slowed during the past year and a half, but they
haven't completely stopped. However, those now participating in this
sort of illegal operation are taking a much bigger risk.

A new law that took effect on Tuesday called the "Marijuana Grow House
Eradication Act" lowered the threshold of marijuana plants needed to
be charged with a second-degree felony, which carries a maximum
punishment of 15 years in prison.

It's now a second-degree felony to grow 25 or more plants, instead of
the previous threshold of 300 plants. Lawmakers hope that change will
target for-profit growers in the state.

The law also makes it a third-degree felony, punishable by a maximum
of five years in prison, to own a house for the purpose of
cultivating, packaging and distributing marijuana. It's also now a
first-degree felony, punishable by a maximum of 30 years in prison, to
grow 25 or more plants in a house where children are present.

Port St. Lucie Police Chief John Skinner said the new law will be a
valuable tool for law enforcement officers.

"It's useful for us, but it also sends a strong message to
defendants," Skinner said.

He's also happy about another element of the new law that allows a
photograph or video recording of evidence seized from a grow house,
such as the bulky lights and other equipment, to be substituted in
court for the real thing. The law allows law enforcement to destroy
grow house equipment at the end of an investigation and gives the
agency immunity from any civil liability that could arise from the
destruction of the equipment.

Storage of seized grow-house equipment has been a major problem for
both the Port St. Lucie police and the St. Lucie County Sheriff's
Office, which have both had to find additional storage space for this
sort of evidence.

"I'm really pleased that instead of storing we can now take pictures,"
Skinner said. "Storage was really a challenge for us."

This is not only a local problem: state officials say the marijuana
grow-house business has boomed across Florida during recent years.
Houses set up to specialize in hydroponic marijuana growing have been
found in 40 of Florida's 67 counties, according to the Florida
Attorney General's office.

Across the state, law enforcement officers have seized more than $41.6
million worth of marijuana plants. Officials say these houses not only
are associated with drug activity, but also violent crime.

In Port St. Lucie, police discovered the first house that led the
dismantling of a major growing operation after receiving a report of a
man with a machete chasing another man outside what turned out to be a
grow house. Investigators discovered another growing ring after a man
killed his uncle in one during a fight over drug money and attempted
to set the house on fire to destroy the evidence.

"Grow houses are not only furthering this dangerous drug trade within
our state, they are bringing violent crime into our neighborhoods,"
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said in a statement. "This new
law will help protect our families and communities."