GROW-OP STUDY BLASTED

Bias Suggested: Critics Say Police Propagating Hysteria

TORONTO --The RCMP is defending its decision to spend $110,000 on a
high-profile study warning of the increasing dangers of marijuana grow-ops
in B.C. -- and headed by a criminologist with extensive links to police
forces in North America.

Insp. Paul Nadeau says the funds were a good use of RCMP resources and
insisted the police force gave Darryl Plecas "total freedom" to conduct his
research.

"We just wanted the facts," says Nadeau, who heads the RCMP's co-ordinated
marijuana enforcement unit in B.C.

"Who else was going to fund this type of project?" asked Plecas, who flatly
rejected any suggestion the study was not independent. "Just because police
put in the money, it doesn't mean they want a whitewash."

Plecas, an experienced criminologist at the University College of the
Fraser Valley, updated one of his previous studies -- also commissioned by
the RCMP -- and examined police and prosecution statistics about marijuana
cultivation in B.C. from 1997 to 2003.

The two studies cost a total of $250,000.

The widely reported update, released this month, described marijuana
grow-ops as a growing "risk to public safety," and called for more criminal
justice resources to deal with the issue, as well as stiffer jail sentences.

Critics suggested the study was biased.

Joseph Neuberger, a Toronto lawyer who frequently defends clients charged
in marijuana grow-ops, says the study's executive summary "panders to the
hysteria police are propagating."

The report indicates that firearms were seized in six per cent of cases in
B.C. between 1997 and 2003, according to police statistics.

Hard drugs like heroin or cocaine were found in less than four per cent of
raids and fires in indoor grow-ops occurred in less than four per cent of
cases.

"This was $250,000 of taxpayers' money, essentially for the police to
market their agenda," said Neuberger.