POLICE SCRUTINY IN CITIES DRIVES MARIJUANA GROWERS TO RURAL B.C.

B.C.'s marijuana-growing industry, once based almost exclusively in the
Lower Mainland, is rapidly expanding into every corner of the province as
organized-crime groups seek cheaper property and less police scrutiny in
more remote areas.

A study of marijuana growing released Friday by the University College of
the Fraser Valley reveals that after rapid growth in the late-1990s, the
number of new growing operations reported to police in B.C. has levelled
off -- dropping six per cent between 2000 and 2003.

But that overall number masks a stark regional divide: While Greater
Vancouver and the Fraser Valley have seen a 20-per-cent drop in the number
of new reported operations, the rest of B.C. has seen a 15-per-cent increase.

And the jump has been even more dramatic than that in some communities. In
the Kootenays, reported growing operations are up 64 per cent, from 158 in
2000 to 259 in 2003.

In the Central Okanagan, which includes Kelowna, growing operations are up
171 per cent -- from 96 to 260.

And in Powell River, reported operations are up almost three-fold (295 per
cent), from just 19 in 2000 to 75 in 2003.

Insp. Paul Nadeau of the RCMP's Coordinated Marijuana Enforcement Team said
the reason for the shift is simple.

In more remote areas, criminals have access to larger properties -- which
allows them to grow more marijuana.

And they are farther away from nosy neighbours who might tip off police.

"If a criminal organization is wanting to generate as much product as they
can, with as low a profile as they can, they're probably better off to head
out of town," Nadeau said.

Another factor is that, unlike big urban detachments such as Surrey and
Langley with dedicated "Green Teams" that focus exclusively on shutting
down growing operations, many small rural detachments don't have the
resources to go after them aggressively.

"Nobody's guarding the fort," said criminologist Darryl Plecas, the study's
lead author.

Port Alberni RCMP Staff Sgt. Lee Omilusik said his detachment has two drug
officers, but they're responsible for all drug files, not just marijuana.

"They're dealing with everything from methamphetamine to heroin," he said.
"We don't have a team strictly for marijuana grow operations."

As a result, Omilusik said, the detachment has to balance its response to
growing operations with the region's other policing needs.

"We do it as the manpower permits," he said. "We're busy with other things
as well."

Sgt. John Jordan, head of the Kelowna RCMP drug section, said his
detachment has been flooded with reports of growing operations in the past
few years.

"There's been a marked increase," he said. "They're in just about every
neighbourhood in Kelowna in significant numbers."

Jordan said the detachment, which has just six full-time drug
investigators, has struggled to deal with the problem.

"It certainly does put a huge pressure on resources," he said. "They are
time-consuming investigations."

To help deal with the backlog of cases, Kelowna has done occasional
crackdowns. The most recent, a two-month blitz last spring, resulted in 40
busts.

But Jordan said the problem has become so big that Kelowna is looking at
establishing its own full-time "Green Team".

Sgt. Andy Brinton of the Powell River RCMP said his detachment is doing
what it can to crack down on the city's booming pot trade.

But he said it doesn't have enough officers to man a full-time growing
operations team.

"It's dependent on the information we receive and the workload of the day,"
he said.

Of the operations the detachment has busted, said Brinton, it appears many
of the growers have moved to Powell River recently from somewhere else,
often the Lower Mainland.

"I would have to say that the more sophisticated, larger-scale grows that
we've come across have been people from outside," he said. "A lot of them
do seem to be from out of town."

One of the things that makes Powell River attractive to growers, said
Brinton, is a wide selection of cheap property for rent.

"Powell River is a bargain, real estate wise," said Brinton. "So what we're
finding is people from other areas are buying land here as an investment
[and] in the meantime, they're offering the trailer or shack on it for rent."

And that combination of cheap rent and an absentee landlord is proving too
tempting for growers to pass up, he said.

One of the challenges police in Powell River face, Brinton said, is that
growing operations are a lot harder to investigate in rural areas than they
are in the city.

In places like Vancouver or Surrey, drug investigators can often collect
valuable evidence without a search warrant -- smelling marijuana from the
sidewalk or viewing a fast-spinning hydro meter from an adjacent property.

"It's harder to make those observations when all you see is a long, twisty
driveway that goes into the bush," Brinton said.