POT LAWS ARE FEDERAL ISSUE

Dear Editor:

Re: Evans' letter 'folly,' Letter to the Editor, Burnaby NOW, Sept. 13.

Mr. Walker thinks that the way to deal with the large number of
marijuana grow ops in Burnaby is to legalize and regulate the sale and
use of marijuana.

That is an issue for the Government of Canada to deal with and outside
the control of provincial and municipal authorities.

As it is unlikely that any such action will be taken any time soon,
other solutions to the problem must be found.

I understand that there are at least 800 grow ops in Burnaby and it is
obvious that the RCMP do not have sufficient personnel to deal with
this problem.

People operating these grow ops are hardened criminals and will not
hesitate to deal violently with anyone who interferes with their operations.

The people of Burnaby deserve to be protected from such criminals and
the only way to do so is to increase RCMP staffing levels in order to
create special units to deal specifically with the grow op problem.

Obviously grow ops are not the only crime problem in Burnaby. I
believe Mr. Walker is correct when he suggests that the police do not
have sufficient personnel to deal with many other crimes and
additional police officers should also be hired to deal with those
problems.

It is my belief that there is a serious crime problem in Burnaby and
that the only way to deal with it effectively is to increase the
number of police officers in the Burnaby RCMP detachment.

Garth Evans, Burnaby city councillor