MOM, 74, SON, 44, ARRESTED IN GROW-OP BUST

A 74-year-old mother and her 44-year-old son are the latest Coquitlam
residents to be arrested for growing pot in the upscale Westwood
Plateau neighbourhood.

RCMP executed a search warrant for theft of electricity and production
of a controlled drug at the residence in the 1500-block Tanglewood
Lane Tuesday night. Officers from Coquitlam and the detachment's
Marijuana Enforcement Team seized 587 plants from the basement of the
large house and the power was shut down.

The septuagenarian mother and her son were arrested and released on a
promise to appear. It's not often that seniors are arrested in grow-op
raids, noted Cpl. Jane Baptista.

"That's not usually the age of the person you see."

But, while the age of the woman is unusual, the business of marijuana
is nothing new in Westwood Plateau. Police seized 1,900 plants from
three homes on Windflower Place earlier this month, 900 plants from
another two homes in the neighbourhood and in the last week of
September, officers uprooted and carted away 1,200 pot plants from
another two homes.

For Tanglewood resident Graham Scott, news of the marijuana mom and
son came as no surprise.

"Believe me, the entire situation up here is very odd," Scott said
last night.

"You want grow-op capital, well here we are on Westwood Plateau . . .
Just by sheer numbers up here, it's quite incredible."

Scott, a seven-year resident of the subdivision, says there is a
groundswell of people like him who want to see the growers out of
Westwood and who routinely meet to to ex-change information about
suspicious homes.

Those suspicions are reported to police, whom Scott said are doing the
best they can.

One of the key problems is absentee landlords and grow-op networks
that sell homes to each other for the express purpose of cultivating
pot, he noted.

Despite the frequency of the grow-op raids, Scott said he has no plans
to leave Westwood Plateau. The community is diverse and interesting,
the streets are safe and residents are now beginning to take an active
role in keeping it that way.

"I'd rather not ship the problem out. I'd rather deal with it here,"
Scott said.