CROWN DRUG SEIZURES CALLED UNFAIR

Farmers who plant seeds don't always produce a bumper crop, and the
same can be said for marijuana growers.

That will be one of the arguments advanced by defence lawyers this
week at a hearing where the federal government is trying to seize
four Kitchener homes used to grow pot in 2004.

A federal prosecutor is applying for forfeiture of homes used by five
family members to grow 593 marijuana plants. The prosecution
considers the operation a sophisticated one and believes forfeiture
of the homes, plus jail sentences, are needed to denounce the crime.

But lawyers will argue this was not a major operation deserving of
such heavy punishment. A couple and three children still live in one
of the homes at 4 Wyandotte Crt.

Lawyers say forfeiting the homes would be disproportionate to the crime.

"If they never made any money growing marijuana, and you're asking
them to give up hundreds of thousands of dollars, that would be
cruel," Craig Parry, the lawyer for one of the accused said outside
Kitchener's Ontario Court yesterday.

He produced photographs of some of the seized pot plants, scoffing at
police suggestions that some of the spindly plants would be worth
$1,000 on the street. That would make the whole pot operation worth
over half a million dollars.

But some of the plants didn't grow well and wouldn't have produced
much of anything, Parry will argue.

"They're not great farmers," he said."Ask any farmer who never had
any training how he did in his first year of business.

"There seems to be a blind faith that if you plant a seed, you'll get
a yield. That's junk science."

Defence lawyers will challenge the government's method of estimating
the yield and value of the plants. To do so, they'll call a Kitchener
man who's been convicted three times of growing marijuana.

Les Soloman now has a government licence to grow it legally for
medical purposes. Because he's been growing pot since the early
1980s, lawyers will try to have him accepted as an expert witness on
growing marijuana.

"He's got some experience in the field," Parry said.

Federal prosecutor Mike O'Malley wouldn't discuss the government's
case yesterday. But a year ago, a local federal prosecutor, Kathleen
Nolan, gave notice that the government would regularly try to seize
homes used in pot grows to reduce the profit for greedy drug operators.

The five people have already pleaded guilty to charges related to
growing marijuana at the homes. Their sentencing will take place
after Justice Gary Hearn rules on the forfeiture issue.

Their lawyers all agreed yesterday that some forfeiture was required,
but not all four homes. They concede the homes are offence-related property.

By agreeing to partial forfeiture, they hope to reduce the sentences
to conditional sentences of house arrest, and avoid jail terms. Each
home had equity of about $70,000. The homes are at 4 Wyandotte Crt.,
2 Corfield Dr., 117 Oneida Pl. and 3121 Briarfield St. The pot
operations were in the basements.

The Oneida Place home was sold and the government wants the cash forfeited.

Lawyer Brennan Smart, who represents Chien Khac Nguyen, the owner of
the Wyandotte Court home, said outside court that if his client loses
that home, his family and their three children will have to find
another place to live. But that's preferable to going to jail, he said.

Changes to the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances
Act allow seizures of homes if they have been used in a marijuana
operation and if seizing them would be proportional to the crime.

Today, the prosecution is expected to put its expert on the stand, a
Waterloo regional police officer who will testify about the dangers
of marijuana grow operations, and explain how police come up with
expected yields and value of the plants.

Also convicted are Cuong Khac Nguyen and his wife, Huyen Le Thi Vu,
and Que Kim Thi Nguyen, who is the wife of Chien Khac Nguyen. Nam Thi
Dinh, the mother of Cuong Khac Nguyen and Que Kim Thi Nguyen is also charged.