GROW OPS RISKIER TO TAKE OUT

Officer Says Judges Soft on Expanding Criminal Activity

OTTAWA - Police officers are routinely risking their lives to shut down
marijuana grow-ops while judges and politicians dismiss the dangers posed
by the expanding criminal enterprise, says Detective Staff Sgt. Rick Barnum
of the Ontario Provincial Police's drug squad.

Barnum said he was sickened by news that four RCMP officers had been killed
Thursday during a raid on an Alberta grow operation, but added he wasn't
surprised, "We haven't predicted something this horrific, but we've
predicted death, injury, significant damage," said Barnum, who has
investigated marijuana grow operations full time for the past two years.

In making appeals for help to politicians, police boards and power company
officials, Barnum's message has been the same: "These are million-dollar
criminal operations that growers will protect."

In most cases, drug squad officers do not know who or what they'll confront
during a raid since marijuana growers tend to use rental properties that
shield their identities. It means, that each search warrant must be
executed with extreme caution since most grow-ops are backed by organized
crime, Barnum said.

"There's fear of the known and there's fear of the unknown. With grow-ops,
it's fear of the unknown that's greater," he said.

The basic strategy, he said, is to go into a building quickly and take
everyone inside down to the floor.

That strategy, however, has recently been complicated by courts that have
tossed out cases in which the police raided growers without first knocking
on their door.

"Judges have felt that by us breaking down the door or doing a quick entry
into a house, we've breached the person's rights inside growing marijuana
and thrown out those charges," he said.

"The courts now demand that we knock before entering a grow house. They
expect you to go stand on the front porch like a sitting duck."

Staff Sgt. Marc Pinault, head of the Ottawa Police Service's drug unit,
said it's impossible to predict what officers will confront so they must
rely on their experience to make instant decisions about what level of
force to use.

"The risk is always there, every day for our guys," said Pinault. "When we
go to these grow-ops, we see high powered rifles, shotguns and machetes.
We've picked up dynamite at grow-ops."

What's more, police enforcement efforts are often undercut by lenient
sentences for marijuana growers, he added.

"The sentencing we see is just not cutting it," he said. "I've seen a guy
with a 300 or 400 plant grow -- which will probably make him about $1
million a year -- get 18 months probation."