STUDY: POT CASES GROW IN LANGLEY

Langley Has The Dubious Distinction Of Making The Top 10 In A Provincial
Pot Study

We're on the list.

And B.C.'s top cop and local police aren't surprised.

Langley made the top 10 list of B.C. jurisdictions whose police opened the
most marijuana grow operation files in 2003. The list appears in a report
on B.C. grow ops, released Friday by the University College of the Fraser
Valley.

It's not a surprise because there's a high concentration of grow ops in the
Fraser Valley, said Fort Langley-Aldergrove MLA and Solicitor General Rich
Coleman.

"We knew we had a number of grow ops," said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dale Carr.
He pointed to the number of responses to Langley detachment's
anti-marijuana "Green Team" tip line.

Langley had 170 cases in 2003, a 170 per cent increase over the past seven
years, putting it ninth in B.C.

While the number of grow ops reported to police across Canada leveled off
between 2001 and 2003, in B.C., the study found, the amount of marijuana
production increased to a seven-year high in 2003.

"[The study] reinforces everything I've been saying, unfortunately,"
Coleman said.

The average length of a grow op suspect's criminal history is 13 years,
with an average number of seven prior criminal convictions, the study stated.

"If somebody thinks this is mom and pop [growing marijuana], they're
dreaming," Coleman said.

The study also found that 10 per cent of growers convicted in 2003 spent
time in jail, down from 19 per cent in 1997.

That data gives "credence" to the B.C. government's argument that growers
are getting off with light sentences, Coleman said, and the report will be
used to back up the fight to seek longer sentences.

The report also helps the RCMP, Carr said: "It supports that there's an
issue here."

"It also helps the community understand the pressures we are under," he added.