PROVINCE LOSING THE WAR ON DRUGS

VICTORIA - There's one area of B.C. business investment that's seen a
boom in rural areas. Unfortunately, it's organized crime.

You may have heard the saga of Likely, a tiny community east of
Williams Lake. Last fall RCMP confirmed results of a two-year
investigation that found eight properties with buildings fitted for
large-scale marijuana growing. At least one of those has been seized
under civil forfeiture legislation, a powerful new tool in targeting
proceeds of crime. Nine Lower Mainland residents were charged.

Are there more Likelys out there? No doubt the gangs learned about the
hazards of creating a cluster in one place.

Just before New Year's Day, police used snowmobiles to raid a property
near Clearwater. They described it as a machine shed with
industrial-style wiring that appeared to have been built for a
grow-op. Further north, Houston RCMP resorted to using their holding
cells to store masses of seized hydroponic equipment.

The problem goes beyond marijuana, a relatively benign drug. The
popularity of "B.C. bud" has led to many new players in the cocaine
trade. Even small local groups tend to have ties to bikers in southern
B.C. who have developed lucrative bud-for-blow arrangements reaching
down to South America. And when bullets fly in B.C. communities, there
are generally hard drugs, often cocaine, involved.

Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis spearheaded a new approach that targets
safety hazards of bad wiring and high electricity consumption. In 2006
the B.C. government passed legislation allowing municipalities to
obtain hydro records showing high-consumption, then inspect those
properties. The approach has been adopted in some Lower Mainland
communities.

Recent hydro records show a 20 per cent drop in high-consumption
properties around the Lower Mainland. Now Garis fears the problem has
simply been displaced to more remote sites. Gangs adapt quickly. Small
towns have few police resources, and can't afford electrical
inspection teams on their own.

Garis points to a recent survey of hydroponic equipment stores that
found more than 80 in all regions of B.C., compared to 13 in Alberta
and nine in Washington state. Police, firefighters and business groups
supported a resolution at a recent municipal convention, calling on
the B.C. government to require an electrical permit for buyers of
high-powered lights and hydroponic gear. So far the government is
non-commital. I asked Solicitor General John van Dongen why. He said
his priority lately has been finding ways to regulate another illicit
trade, metal theft. He's also concerned about restricting legitimate
hydroponic farming.

Garis says other provinces are acting. In 2006 Manitoba agreed to pay
for electrical inspections, instead of leaving it to communities that
can't afford it, as B.C. is doing.

"We're a world crime superpower predicated on marijuana," a frustrated
Garis told me. "Eighty per cent of what we're growing here is being
distributed corporately to other provinces, the United States and elsewhere.

"We've made a booming business out of it because we're resting on our
laurels, saying, oh, we don't want to regulate, and yet this thing
just spirals out of control. It's ridiculous."