GROW-OPS LINING POCKETS OF TOO MANY WELFARE RECIPIENTS

Unfortunately, Langley's Phu Son isn't the only B.C. resident who let
taxpayers outfit his large family's comfy lifestyle while he harvested
his illegal cannabis crops.

At least one third of the estimated 25,000 illicit grow-ops in B.C.
are run by people pulling in welfare, according to a 2001 statistical
study by Vancouver police officer Gerry Wickstead.

And they aren't your garden-variety plots, either. The average street
value of a pot spread tended by someone on the dole was $318,837.

So what is it likely costing hardworking taxpayers annually in social
benefits? Upwards of $45 million -- and rising, if you add in the free
medical, dental services and legal aid available to recipients and
their families.

Many of us can't afford one home, yet this may explain how Son and his
wife and their eight kids came to own a farm in Abbotsford, a spacious
manor in Aldergrove and a third in Langley with a double-car garage to
park a flashy silver SUV and classy white coupe -- all acquired in 10
years. Hardly a typical welfare family, considering two of the
properties were "cash sales," according to information from the B.C.
Assessment Authority.

Sources tell me that now that Son is serving his sentence for farming
the grow-up, welfare officials have taken control of the file to
determine if fraud charges apply and whether it's pay-back-the-taxpayer
time.

They'd better hurry.

Son, listed at the New Westminster title office as a mushroom grower
and owner of the Abbotsford farm, told Province reporter Lena Sin that
he's moving the family soon. He's found a buyer for the Langley
residence and has the second one listed -- news that makes Langley MP
Randy White see red.

The crusty justice critic railed against the feds for not seizing Son's
assets under the proceeds of crime provision in the Criminal Code: "Why are
these houses not seized as proceeds of crime and used for rehabilitation of
drug addicts?" he demanded recently in the House of Commons.

Victoria has some explaining to do as well: How did Son's family
manage to dine compliments of the public purse for so long -- at least
$2,000 a month for a total of $192,000 over eight years? Isn't anyone
in Victoria keeping tabs? Didn't anyone think to check the family's
assets?

The courts aren't helping matters, either. Son's no-jail term isn't
uncommon: Wickstead found that of the marijuana cultivation
convictions logged in 2000, 20 per cent drew conditional or community
sentences. About 31 per cent averaged four months in jail while the
rest were fined or given suspended sentences.

It hardly makes sense for the Mounties to drain scarce resources
busting grow-ops when the sentencing courts say punishment is having
to hang around the house for nine months.