GROW-OP PROSECUTIONS DECLINE AS POLICE GIVE UP, STUDY SAYS

Police are less likely to investigate marijuana growers, prosecutors are
less likely to lay charges against them, and judges are less likely to send
them to jail than they were in the late 1990s, according to a
groundbreaking study to be released today.

"It seems, no question about it, that the system is increasingly unable or
otherwise failing to respond to this problem, despite the fact that we have
every indication that the problem is worsening," said Darryl Plecas, a
criminology professor at the University College of the Fraser Valley, and
the study's lead author. "I think we have a criminal justice system that is
very much on the brink of imploding."

The study of the province's pot trade is based on a review of all reported
cases of marijuana growing in B.C. from 1997 to 2003.

"We went to every single police office and physically pulled the files
ourselves," said Plecas.

Researchers then tracked the results of each case through the justice system.

The $250,000 study was paid for by the RCMP, but Plecas said he was given
"carte blanche" to draw his own conclusions -- which in many cases were not
very flattering of the police.

"People in the system perhaps would rather this report not be there,
because it's not exactly complimentary of any part of the system," he said.

One of the report's key findings is that the percentage of growing
operations reported to police that are "fully investigated" -- meaning, in
most cases, a search warrant being executed -- has dropped from nearly all
cases (91 per cent) in 1997 to just over half (52 per cent) in 2003.

During that same period, the percentage of cases where police only
conducted an "initial investigation" -- such as driving by a suspect
property for any outward signs of marijuana growing -- jumped from just two
per cent of all cases to 26 per cent.

And the share of cases where police did nothing at all has jumped from
seven per cent to 22 per cent.

Even when police do end up raiding suspected growing operations, the study
found, they are far less likely to pursue charges against the growers.

The percentage of raids that result in "no-case seizures" -- where police
seize any plants they find but don't send a report to Crown counsel -- has
jumped from just over a third of all cases (35 per cent) in 1997 to
two-thirds (64 per cent) in 2003.

Plecas said some police forces are bucking the provincewide trend, but that
many have simply thrown in the towel when it comes to marijuana growing.

"Some jurisdictions appear to have folded their tent," he said. "They seem
to have given up."

Plecas refused to provide statistics by jurisdiction, saying he didn't want
to embarrass individual police departments.