POLICE VIDEO TIPS OFF LANDLORDS TO GROW-OPS

Vancouver police unveiled a video yesterday aimed at giving landlords
tips on how to detect marijuana growops. But the video also takes aim
at the courts for going soft on growers.

In between advice on spotting grow-ops, the narrator points to
"Canadian public apathy to prosecuting grow operators," and notes that
only 1.5 out of 100 operators busted serve jail time.

According to the video, there are up to 20,000 growops in B.C. at any
given time.

Most grow-ops are controlled by organized criminals, who often go to
great lengths to disguise them as regular residences.

Responding to a question about whether legalizing marijuana might cut
down on the problem, Sgt. Kash Heed said he didn't want to get into
that debate, but pointed to statements he made to a 2001 Senate Committee.

"Total prohibition has resulted in costly enforcement, alienation of
groups of people, discriminatory enforcement, little deterrence in
supply, and minimal deterrence of use," he told the committee.

Vancouver-Kingsway MLA Adrian Dix said the community needs to get
involved in helping police remove grow-ops.

"We can't simply wait for big changes in drug laws in order to take
action," he said.