HEAD OF KELOWNA RCMP CALLS FOR TOUGHER PENALTIES FOR POT GROWERS

Low rate of convictions and short sentences a lack of significant
deterrent, police say

The head of the Kelowna RCMP has lashed out at the courts, criticizing
them for not being tough enough on people involved with marijuana grow
operations, saying the lack of significant deterrents allow grow ops
to proliferate.

Kelowna RCMP Superintendent Bill McKinnon held a press conference
Monday, where he said that in 2008 and 2009, his officers busted 81
grow ops. Of 130 people charged as a result, 46 were found guilty but
only 10 received jail time. Two people are still awaiting sentencing
while another 17 cases are still working their way through the courts.

"Out of 130 people, only 10 received custodial sentences," said Supt.
McKinnon. "From a police perspective, I don't think that's enough."

What's more, he said, those who are going to jail are not going for
long enough.

Of the 10 people who were sent to jail, the longest sentence was 15
months. Four others were sentenced to a year each, three received nine
months and two were sentenced to 90 days, However, Supt. McKinnon
defended Kelowna's local judges and directed most of his frustration
at the BC Court of Appeal, whose rulings set precedents the lower
courts must follow.

"They have a very difficult job," he said of the local judges.
"They're held accountable by the appeal court for the province of
British Columbia."

McKinnon described marijuana in B.C. as a "multimillion dollar
industry" which, he said, is largely controlled by organized crime.
But he added that the lure of big profits combined with a low risk of
going to jail if caught, means there are also a large number of "mom
and pop operations."

He called for tougher jail sentences and more forfeiture of homes used
as grow ops.

"The average person who is running a grow op out of a house could
conceivably earn three to four million dollars," he said. "The only
way you stop bad behaviour is by having a consequence - and it has to
be such that people really think about what they're doing."

Supt. McKinnon went on say that if he had enough officers, they could
bust one grow op a day in the Kelowna area and be kept busy for the
next three or four months. "It's a huge burden in terms of resources."

But not everyone thinks getting tough on grow ops is the way to make
communities safer.

"It's naive to think that simply sending people to jail is an answer
to the problem," said Kelowna defence lawyer, Wade Jensen.

For one thing, it costs about $100,000 a year to put someone in jail,
he said. "That's a huge burden on the taxpayer."

But more importantly, he said, raising the stakes for people caught
operating grow ops won't make grow ops disappear but will instead
increase the risk of violence associated with them.

"Where a person is at risk of perhaps a fine or some other
reasonable-minded penalty for having committed an offence, versus a
jail sentence of some length, then their desire to avoid detection and
ultimately avoid capture goes up commensurate to that, so that brings
weapons into the fray," he said. "More weapons, more violence, more
police officers being hurt as well as innocent civilians being put at
risk."

Mr. Jensen described the current situation as "the natural result of
criminalizing marijuana use."

The solution to the proliferation of grow ops and the involvement of
organized crime is to decriminalize marijuana use, he said.

"It's going to take the drug dealers out of the picture, it's going to
take the guns out of the picture. It's going to take the police out of
the picture, so they're not going to be in favour of that. It's going
to mean lower budgets for the police."

During his press conference, Supt. McKinnon was asked for his opinion
on decriminalizing marijuana.

"I'm not going there. We're paid to enforce the laws as they stand
today," he replied.