OUT OF CONTROL: CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM 'ON THE BRINK OF IMPLODING'

With More Than 4,500 Reports Last Year Of Illegal Indoor Pot-Growing
Operations, B.C. Police Cannot Keep Up.

Lawbreakers have to rack up nine or more prior drug convictions before they
have a better than 50-50 chance of being sent to jail. Children are found
in one-fifth of grow-ops raided. In B.C.'s war against marijuana-growing
operations, a groundbreaking new study makes one thing clear: The growers
are winning and the situation is out of control.

First of a two-day series

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 to 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 province-wide 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.

Insp. Paul Nadeau, head of the RCMP's new Coordinated Marijuana Enforcement
Team, acknowledged the study's findings are troubling.

"Nobody in [the study] is looking very good," he said. "I call it grow-op
fatigue. ... I think police are tired, just like everyone else is, in
dealing with these things."

He said the RCMP and municipal police forces are reviewing the study to
figure out how to reverse the trend.

"We're still looking at it and digesting it and it will take awhile to come
up with a game plan that will hopefully improve the situation," he said.

Plecas' study found that at the same time as police are sending fewer and
fewer reports to Crown counsel, prosecutors are also becoming less and less
likely to lay charges.

In 1997, the study found, Crown prosecutors laid charges in 96 per cent of
the growing operation cases it received from police.

By 2003, that had dropped to 76 per cent.

Taken together, the actions of both police and Crown have resulted in a
sharp drop in the number of people being charged with growing marijuana in B.C.

After rising steadily in the late 1990s, the number of suspects charged
with growing marijuana in B.C. has dropped dramatically in the last few
years, from 2,116 in 2000 to just 798 in 2003.

Remarkably, even fewer people were charged with growing marijuana in 2003
than in 1997 (1,185) -- despite the fact there were three times as many
growing operations reported to police.

"That kind of blew me away, frankly," said Nadeau. "We need to look at
that. Because that doesn't make any sense. We've got three times the
problem as we had back then and we're charging less people."

Bob Prior, director of the federal prosecution service in B.C., said
"there's no doubt that, based on the information here, that we aren't
charge-approving as many cases sent in by the police as we did in the past."

However, Prior said that's the result of a deliberate policy on the part of
prosecutors to do more "upfront screening" of cases to reduce the number
that fail later on.

"We have, in the last year or two, become far more aggressive in applying
our charge-approval standard," said Prior. "It's in no one's interest to
lay a charge and either have it stayed on the eve of trial or end in an
acquittal."

However, Plecas said while his study found a drop in the number of charges
laid by Crown, there has been no corresponding decline in the number of
charges ending in stays or acquittals -- something one would expect if the
quality of cases had improved.

Of those marijuana growing cases that do get to trial, the vast majority --
93 per cent -- result in a conviction.

But Plecas' study found judges have become increasingly lenient with
convicted growers.

From 1997 to 2003, the percentage of convicted growers sent to jail has
dropped from 19 per cent to 10 per cent.

Provincial Court Chief Judge Carol Baird Ellan declined a request to
comment on the study's findings.

However, Baird Ellan has said in the past that judges in B.C. are simply
responding to changes made to the Criminal Code in 1996 and later rulings
by the Supreme Court of Canada that say imprisonment should be a last
resort in sentencing and that, where appropriate, offenders should be
permitted to serve their sentences at home.

Prior said the Crown is working with police to provide judges with more
information about the negative impact of growing operations on the
community -- such as fires and home invasions -- in the hope it might lead
to harsher sentences.

Plecas said he believes the lenient sentences handed out by B.C. courts are
partly responsible for police becoming less aggressive in their pursuit of
growers.

"It's this sort of throwing up your hands and saying: 'What's the point ...
if, at the end of the day, the judge is just going to turn the person
loose?'" said Plecas.

Solicitor-General Rich Coleman said he shares the frustrations of police
officers with lenient sentences, but said he still expects police to do
their best to crack down on growers.

"I'm asking law enforcement to go out and perform their function," he said.
"Their function is to enforce the law. They don't go out there and decide
what laws to enforce. They should go out and do their job."

A COMMON STORY

August 2001: Family home at 2188 Burquitlam Dr., Vancouver closed by drug
squad after illegal marijuana-growing operation found. Power, gas cut.

November 2001: Re-occupancy permitted.

January 2005: Police again find grow-op. Services cut. City invokes new
"Warning to Prospective Purchasers" policy to warn others if house is
offered for sale.