COQUITLAM POPULAR FOR POT FARMERS, SAYS STUDY

Coquitlam remains one of the busiest cities in B.C. for pot farmers,
according to a report released yesterday by the University College of the
Fraser Valley (UCFV).

But a top provincial drug-enforcement officer said that dubious distinction
is likely to change with introduction last fall of the RCMP Marijuana
Enforcement Team (MET).

"What we're finding is that jurisdictions with green teams, the numbers
slow down or turn around, and I believe Coquitlam's going to see their
numbers turn around, too," said Insp. Paul Nadeau, who heads up B.C.'s
Co-ordinated Drug Enforcement Team.

Delta, Nanaimo and Abbotsford dropped off the UCFV's Top 10 list for cities
with large volumes of pot farms because of increased policing, the report
states. They were replaced on the list by Kelowna, Prince George and Pitt
Meadows/Maple Ridge.

The UCFV report, which was funded by the RCMP, shows Coquitlam, Kelowna and
Prince George had 500% increases in pot cases over a seven-year period
(Coquitlam's case load for grow ops rose 624%). And 15% of the pot homes
had hazards, such as weapons, booby traps, explosives, chemical products
and other drugs.

(Thursday, Coquitlam's MET seized 1,200 pot plants from a Spar Drive home
that had its front door barricaded and was loaded with electrical booby traps.)

Nadeau said pot growers tend to produce in areas where they're less likely
to be charged and where they can grow mass quantities of marijuana, like in
the suburbs.

But Darryl Plecas, the lead researcher for the report, called Marijuana
Growing Operations in British Columbia, Revisited, said growers are moving
to more rural areas and Vancouver Island, where there's plenty of room and
they won't be bothered.

Still, Nadeau said, the value of the home carries a great deal of weight
when pot producers are setting up shop. Since Coquitlam's MET formed last
September, dozens of expensive homes on Westwood Plateau have been found to
have marijuana grow ops. "Last summer, when the market was hot, growers
were getting busted and selling their homes - even disclosing that they
used it for a grow - and were making money from selling their house,"
Nadeau said. "It's a win-win for them to make money."

But few growers are getting busted. The report states 1,185 suspects were
charged in 1997 versus 798 in 2003, "and the problem is three times as big
now," Nadeau said.

He suspects police in some jurisdictions are not spending the investigation
time to recommend charges to Crown counsel. "It becomes like a janitorial
exercise for them," he said. "You're just cleaning up the problem and not
necessarily charging suspects. That can happen when you're just drowning in
the numbers [of grow ops]."

Coquitlam RCMP Cpl. Jane Baptista said the green team makes it a practice
to arrest as many suspects as possible connected to grow-ops, and to seize
their assets. "We are making it as hard as we can for them [to do business]
in our city," Baptista said.

But if the charges stick, the judges aren't taking the cases seriously in
court.

In 2003, 41% of convicted growers received a conditional sentence and 49%
got a fine averaging $1,591, the report states. Only 10% got a prison
sentence averaging 7.5 months. In Washington State, 49% of convicted
growers are sentenced to five years behind bars. In B.C., no one in the
past seven years got a five-year jail term.

"The consequences for involvement in a grow operation in British Columbia,
even where a person receives a prison sentence, are likely insufficient to
reduce or prevent participation in marijuana grow operations," the UCFV
report states.

Nadeau said his agency is sending the UCFV report to B.C. judges and
offering them a chance to meet with Plecas and his research team to discuss
the problem.