POLICE SHUT DOWN 18% MORE GROW OPERATIONS

Toronto Police have stepped up their war on marijuana grow houses in
Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke this year, shutting down 18 per
cent more of the operations than last year.

But according to a report from Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair,
delivered to the police services board this week, the effort is
barely making a dent in the lucrative drug trade in suburban
neighbourhoods, and is hurting the service's ability to deal with
street level drug crime.

The report says that while 169 grow operations have so far been
dismantled this year through Project Growstop, street level drug
enforcement has decreased by 77 per cent in the east end and 20 per
cent in the west end.

Ultimately, Blair said, police can only do so much to stop grow
houses from proliferating unless the courts start handing down
stiffer penalties to those convicted of running the illegal operations.

"The sentences passed down for this type of activity 60 miles south
of us (in the United States) are significantly more severe than they
are in this country," Blair said.

Tighten UP Legislation

He said police services around the GTA are talking with other levels
of government to find ways to tighten up legislation to combat the
grow-ops. And the Toronto drug squad has formed a joint partnership
with the RCMP and York Regional Police to investigate organized
crime's involvement in the operations.

Staff Insp. Dan Hayes, who heads the Toronto Police Service's Drug
Squad, said that one of the biggest problems that police are having
is the hands-off approach that many landlords take when it comes to
accepting responsibility for the activities of their tenants.

"The landlords often hide behind a veil of ignorance - they throw
their hands up and say 'I don't know what's happening on my
property'," Hayes said. "We would like landlords to be more diligent
in ensuring that they do know what happens on their property, but
that requires a legislative change."

More police officers would also help.

"I don't think we're satisfactorily on top of it now," Blair said.
"We know it's a problem that continues to grow and represents a
threat to public safety. We believe that working together we can be
more effective in our response and find ways that we can get
additional resources."