EFFORTS TO CUT DOWN GROW OPS FALL SHORT

Illegal-Growing Problem Expands As Whistle-Blowers Afraid to Come Forward

Police efforts to stamp out highly profitable marijuana grow
operations in Quebec are stymied by the size of the problem and
threats against whistle-blowers.

"There is a lot of fear," said Eliane Hamel, spokesperson for the
Union des producteurs agricoles, a farmers' group that co-operates
with the Surete du Quebec to stamp out drug operations in rural areas.

Individual farmers are reluctant to denounce clandestine drug
plantations in their fields for fear of reprisals, Hamel said.

The intimidation - threats, barns catching fire, tractors that break
down - grows in step with illegal drug plantations, she added.

In 2003, the SQ seized 390,000 marijuana plants from farmers' fields,
a 600-per-cent increase over the 65,000 plants destroyed a decade
earlier, Hamel said.

"We don't seem to be making headway," she said. "The farmers are
discouraged."

Municipal police forces also have their hands full weeding out home
marijuana growers.

The Surete du Quebec, which launched a joint police force offensive in
1999 against marijuana growers, refused yesterday to draw parallels
between the Alberta situation and Quebec.

"We won't make any connections, out of respect for the victims and our
colleagues," Surete du Quebec spokesperson Manon Gaignard said yesterday.

The Alberta shootings were exceptional, she noted.

"Not everyone will shoot at police when they arrive (on a raid),"
Gaignard said.

There have been 63 SQ officers killed on duty since the provincial
police force was founded in 1870. Of those, 13 were considered
homicides; most of the rest were accidents, she said.

"It's true that marijuana attracts criminals," Gaignard said. "But
there are many other unknown aspects to (the Alberta shootings)," not
least of which was the shooter's state of mind.

If Quebec has its share of marijuana grow operations, it also has its
fair share of strange loners, Gaignard noted.

"There are lots of hermits in rural areas who come out with a rifle
when someone comes by - and not just police," she said.

"When I was young, there was one in every village."

Whatever the shooter's intentions, advocates of marijuana fear the
deaths of the four RCMP officers could polarize opinion on
decriminalizing the drug.

"This will push the buttons for more punitive action and set off a
vicious cycle of violence," said Blair Longley, leader of the
Marijuana Party of Canada.

"Legalization would end the violence by taking away the (excessive)
profits."

Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan is considering tougher penalties
for marijuana grow operations, even as federal Liberals gather in
Ottawa today for a convention and to debate the marijuana issue.

"It would be disappointing if people used the tragedy to push their
own political agenda," said Marc-Boris St-Maurice, Marijuana Party
founder and now a member of the Liberal Party.

"We shouldn't talk about marijuana, but about these officers, and what
could be done to prevent (the killings)," he said.