POLICE USE SPIN TO HELP BATTLE GROW OPS

MARIJUANA: Local Lawyer Says Recent Busts Nothing Unusual, But Way
RCMP Get Message Out Is An Attempt At Creating Another Deterrent

Nelson lawyer, Don Skogstad handles a lot of criminal cases involving
marijuana growing operations and says recent police reports of
seizing houses and organized crime connections in relation (to)
marijuana cultivation are simply part of a media spin campaign by the RCMP.

In several recent marijuana grow busts, police have issued charges
that could allow the federal government to seize property from the owners.

Skogstad said there have been laws on the books for years that allow
for the forfeiture of assets that are used either in the commission
of a crime - such as a house used for growing marijuana - or assets
derived from the proceeds of crime.

He's handled hundreds of cases involving marijuana grow op busts over
the years, but Skogstad said these types of prosecutions have only
emerged in the B.C. Interior recently.

"I think it's becoming common," he said. "There's a special division
of the RCMP and the prosecutors down in Vancouver to deal with this.
It's going to become a lot more common."

Skogstad added he has reason to believe the new approach is a result
of orders from high up in government.

"My inside sources tell me that John Les, the former attorney
general, directed that they take these measures."

Skogstad added that he knows of at least 10 people in the area right
now who are having their houses threatened under this law.

Police are also able to report grow ops to the Canada Revenue Agency,
which can in turn tax the owners for the assets used and the proceeds
from their operations.

"It's treated like any other business," he said, noting that the CRA
usually looks at factors like the amount of growing implements such
as lights, the number of plants, and the length of time since there
has been a spike in the hydro bill at a property.

Skogstad also said that recent reports from RCMP stating that the
majority of grow operations in the region are linked to organize
crime is misleading and in effect, propaganda.

The laws defines organized crime as crime involving the collaboration
of two or more people, Skogstad explained.

And while he said that some grow operations in the area may sell
their crops to a "broker", the majority of them are run by average
folk and families, with no connections to any larger criminal elements.

"You don't have to be a bad guy," Skogstad said. "One of my cases is
a family with four children.

"They're people you would have for dinner - people you play golf
with. It's not what police make it out to be... No judge is going to
consider that organized crime. It's propaganda."

The reason police are using these tactics involves deterrence, Skogstad noted.

"Five grow operations are busted in B.C. a year, and more than five
start," he said. "Maybe more than that in the Kootenays.

"Police want to do more about that."

But Skogstad noted that to-date not a single house in the Kootenays
has been taken by the government.

And in his 30 years of practicing law, Skogstad said not one of his
clients has spent a day in jail for involvement in a marijuana grow operation.

"It's rare for growers to go to jail in the Kootenays," he said.