SURREY JUDGE CALLS GROW-OP PROBLEM 'PLAGUE'

A Surrey judge who says the courts see far too many grow op cases
slapped a jail term on a first-time offender who quit a well-paying
job to set up a marijuana greenhouse in North Delta.

What was an epidemic has become a plague," Surrey Provincial Judge
John Lenaghan wrote in his reasons for sentencing Vancouver resident
Keith Gordon Wallis to 15 months in jail. Wallis, 31, had no criminal
record when Delta Police raided the grow op he was running inside a
house in the 11000 block of 81A Avenue in February of 2003. Wallis
pleaded guilty to unlawful production of marijuana last year.

During sentencing, both his lawyer and the Crown prosecutor agreed
Wallis should be given house arrest. Lenaghan saw it differently.

In the Wallis case, the prevalence of this criminal activity...and
the corrupting influence of this criminal activity" are aggravating
factors, Lenaghan said.

The defendant had secure, well-paid employment and was the owner,
with his parents, of the house in which the grow operation was discovered.

Instead of being satisfied with his comfortable circumstances, he
chose to establish a large, sophisticated and expensive criminal enterprise."