GET TOUGH ON MARIJUANA GROWERS, POCO DEMANDS

The courts are too easy on pot growers, says Port Coquitlam
council, which voted Monday to send a resolution to a national
organization to lobby the federal government for tougher penalties
on people convicted of cultivating marijuana.

City council will forward its motion to the Federation of Canadian
Municipalities for debate at its June convention.

Coun. Darrell Penner said he knows of one instance when a grower
was fined $100 for growing 500 plants. "It shows the
ridiculousness of how this system isn't working," he said.

Because consequences are minor, Mayor Scott Young said, police
tackling the problem face a "revolving door" scenario.

He cited a 2004 study by Daryl Plecas, a professor at the University
College of the Fraser Valley, which showed nine per cent of house
fires are a result of pot farms and said grow ops also lead to home
invasions and possible expansion to potentially explosive
methamphetamine labs, and put children living in or near them at
risk.

"The situation is at a crisis level and we ask that you take action to
increase the legal consequences associated with having a grow op,
including the legislation of minimum significant fines and/or
minimum jail time for convicted persons," Young wrote in a Nov.
26 letter to Irwin Cotler, the federal minister of justice and
Attorney General of Canada.

But Coun. Mike Bowen said an increase in penalties can translate
into a pressure on the court system and in jails. "It will start a
domino effect," Bowen said at Monday's meeting.