IT'S ABOUT THE MONEY

News that British Columbia's indoor pot business is still flourishing is a
message to some that it's time to give up the fight over marijuana grow
operations.

They claim it's a battle that can never be won; that simple surrender is
the only option.

That's a naive suggestion.

It's naive because it is based on the assumption that the powers that drive
the multi-billion dollar illegal marijuana trade will simply go away if the
drug were legalized.

Last week a study done by the University College of the Fraser Valley
showed indoor marijuana grow operations were still doing a thriving
business. This despite the fact that communities like Chilliwack have
developed tough new strategies to combat the problem. Indeed, the study
found that Chilliwack has more grow-ops per capita than any community in
British Columbia. (Pot biz growing in Chilliwack, Progress March 15.)

From 1997 to 2003, the study found, cases in Chilliwack grew 214 per cent.

Granted, the study's findings were compiled before the city introduced its
new municipal regulations that can impose a $10,000 fine on property owners
caught with a grow-op on their premises. But UCFV criminology professor
Darryl Plecas, main author of the report, doubts the bylaw will have much
impact. When a single crop of marijuana can reap $300,000, he says, a
$10,000 fine will not provide much of a deterrent.

Nonetheless, giving up the fight is not an option. It is simplistic to
assume that legalization of marijuana will end the proliferation of indoor
grow operations. Most of the product produced in British Columbia's $6
billion marijuana trade heads south, where it's sold, or exchanged for
drugs like cocaine. This lucrative commerce is driven by organized crime,
and organized crime is driven by money. The fact that the recreational pot
smoker might be able to pick up a joint one day at a corner store won't end
this lucrative export production.

What it would do is effectively close the borders with our largest trading
partner. If border crossings have become difficult in this post-9/11 world,
imagine what they would be like if Canada legalized a drug that most
Americans believe is dangerous.

Instead, Canada has to look at its own laws. The courts have to see that
large-scale marijuana operations are the thin edge of an organized crime
wedge. Although usually run by low-level operatives, grow-ops are the money
end of operations that feed other illegal activities in our communities.

As Darryl Plecas told The Progress, "The only thing that's going to turn
this around is more active types of (court) sentences," he said. "We don't
want to lose our compassion and understanding at some point for growers,
but we've got to stop being stupid about it and recognize it's an economic
crime with major connections to organized crime."