JUDGE WON'T JAIL POT GROWER

Police Say Judge Is Overlooking Connection To Organized
Crime

Comments by a Courtenay provincial court judge that marijuana growing
is a "victimless crime" highlight a continuing debate over the best
way to respond to the problems with pot.

Judge Brian Saunderson, in sentencing a 41-year-old man earlier this
month, refused to consider a jail sentence requested by the Crown.

Fining the man $20,000 for a $500,000 pot operation, Saunderson cited
a California judge, James P. Gray, who wrote "Why Our Drug Laws Have
Failed and What We Can Do about It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on
Drugs."

Saunderson quoted Gray's conclusion that the war on drugs is now more
harmful than drug abuse itself. The comments came just as Island
Mounties finished a well-publicized blitz, using Canadian Forces
helicopters, against outdoor growing operations.

In various releases and comments throughout the operation, police have
repeated that marijuana funds organized crime and is a general threat
to the community.

Simon Fraser University crimin-ologist Neil Boyd said although it is
correct that pot growing is linked to organized crime, it is only the
illegality of marijuana that has created this situation.

He suggests treating marijuana like alcohol.

"It's also correct to say a regulatory model would make much more
sense," he said. "Our policies are right now lining the pockets of
marijuana growers."

But retired Mountie Phil Humphries, who once headed the drug section
in Nanaimo, said police just shake their heads when they hear comments
like Saunderson's.

"It just totally goes against what's happening out there," said
Humphries.

Humphries said he knows for a fact that marijuana growing facilitates
crime groups to deal in cocaine and weapons. Marijuana goes south, he
said, and cocaine and guns come north.

"How can he say it's a victimless crime? It doesn't make
sense."

Boyd said the simpler solution is to regulate pot out of the hands of
criminals.