COURTS SHOULD CRACK DOWN ON MARIJUANA 'GROW HOUSES'

As today's Standard Close Up reveals, there's no mystery as to why we've
seen an epidemic of major marijuana-growing operations in

Niagara. It's easy to avoid being detected, criminals can make an quick
fortune, and if they're caught the penalties are a slap on the wrist.

But what large-scale marijuana growers are doing in their "grow houses" is
not only illegal, it's dangerous to public health and well-being. The
solution is not to increase penalties for these gang-run operations, but to
strictly enforce the penalties we have already.

The people who are involved in large-scale marijuana growing usually rent a
house in a typical neighbourhood. Then they tap into the hydro lines at a
point where their electricity use can't be metered. The growers don't
normally live in these houses; someone acts as an occasional care-taker.

Because so much energy is needed to simulate summer temperatures and
24-hour sunlight, police and hydro spokesmen estimate as much as $2,000 a
month in illegal electricity is stolen by each marijuana grow house -- as
much as 19 times that used by a normal family home.

We agree with Tom MacLean, head of the Niagara Regional Police morality
unit, that these operations are a risk to public safety. There's a danger
to anyone -- child or adult -- who wanders on to the property and may be
electrocuted by illegally and improperly wired hydro lines coming into the
house.

But a more common danger is fire caused by the heat generated by the lights
used for growing the plants. We have had 19 fires in Niagara grow houses
since 1999, which put neighbouring homes and emergency workers' lives at risk.

When firefighters come to put out the blaze, they think electricity workers
have shut the power off. But often they haven't, since it's being brought
into the house illegally. As firefighters spray water and enter the house
to put out the fires, they are then at risk of being electrocuted by the
"live" wiring.

We have only seen smaller, private marijuana operations up until the last
year or so, and light penalties weren't much of a concern till now. But we
need stiff sentences to be applied to deter the criminal gangs and the
large-scale operations we are now finding in Niagara.

The reason gangs have started large-scale marijuana growing in this region
is that penalties in the U.S. range up to a maximum of 40 years for growing
more than 100 plants and life for growing more than 1,000.

In Canada the maximum, if ever applied, is only seven years.

But if it is applied fully, especially in the cases of the 15 operations
shut down by the NRP since January, that would send a loud message to
criminals that Canada is serious about clamping down on such activity.

We have been lucky so far that no lives have been lost either through fire
or electrocution. We must do all we can to keep things that way.