THE GROW-OP WAR IS LOST

When a law becomes hopelessly unenforceable, it's time to consider a
new approach. And B.C. Hydro's estimate that people with grow ops are
stealing $100 million worth of electricity a year shows our approach
to marijuana law is a total failure.

Grow ops, B.C. Hydro suggest, use three to 10 times the electricity of
a typical household. Which means that at any time, somewhere between
8,000 and 26,000 grow ops are stealing electricity.

Take the midpoint and you have 17,000 grow ops stealing electricity.
Add in thousands more using generators or paying for their power. And
then factor in the outdoor grow ops -- the RCMP seized 29,000 pot
plants on Vancouver Island alone last fall.

All in, B.C. Hydro's estimate suggests there are some 20,000 to 25,000
grow ops in the province. Estimates of the cash value vary wildly, but
some $3 billion to $4 billion a year seems to be considered a
conservative estimate.

Police departments cannot possibly deal with this scale of operations.
A 2006 University of the Fraser Valley study on grow ops found that in
1997 police across B.C. investigated more than 90 per cent of grow-op
reports within one month. By 2003, that had fallen to 50 per cent. Up
to 25 per cent of reports were never followed up at all, because
police had other priorities. According to B.C. Hydro, the number of
grow ops stealing power has more than doubled since then.

Enforcement is, in short, ineffectual. The profits are large and the
risks of being apprehended tiny. Police routinely seize the plants and
equipment without laying charges and those involved return to the business.

Worse, the current approach enriches criminal gangs. Police maintain
that they profit from the production, sale and export of marijuana and
frequently trade B.C. pot for cocaine, which they import and sell.

The current approach provides no benefits while doing considerable
damage.

Californians will vote next month on legalizing and regulating
marijuana. That is the approach favoured by a majority of Canadians,
according to an Angus Reid poll earlier this year.

That does not mean turning our back on the risks of marijuana use,
which are real.

But again, the current approach is not addressing those risks either.
And we have established with alcohol and tobacco that legal, regulated
sales of much more damaging substances can be the appropriate public
policy.

The criminal war on marijuana has failed. It is time for a smarter
approach.