STUDY CONFIRMS THAT COQUITLAM IS GOING TO POT

Coquitlam has the third-highest volume of marijuana cultivation cases in
British Columbia, according to a new study out of the University College of
the Fraser Valley.

"The one thing which was not surprising to us is that - and this is
especially true in Coquitlam - the problem has continued to worsen to such
an extent that there's more grows than ever before," said Darryl Plecas, a
criminology professor at UCFV and the lead author of the study.

"The production is higher than it's ever been. These individual operations
are more sophisticated and larger than they've ever been before."

The study of the province's pot trade is based on a review of all reported
cases of marijuana growing in B.C. from 1997 to 2003. Researchers then
tracked the results of each case through the justice system.

The report was commissioned by the RCMP.

"The purpose in getting the report was to take an objective look at the
situation and the size of the problem and all the different issues insofar
as the response from the system," said Insp. Paul Nadeau, head of the
provincial Marijuana Enforcement Team. "We wanted to refresh the results
(of a 2002 study) to see if there are any changes out there on the landscape."

One finding is that of the 149 jurisdictions in B.C. studied, 10 accounted
for more than 50 per cent of all police cases in the province for 2003.

Each of these jurisdictions has had at least a 150-per-cent increase in
marijuana cultivation incidents since 1997. The average number of cases of
marijuana cultivation in 2003 in each of the top 10 jurisdictions was 245.

The largest increases over the seven-year period were in Prince George,
Kelowna and Coquitlam, each with increases of more than 500 per cent.

Coquitlam had 297 cases of marijuana cultivation in 2003 and accounted for
6.6 per cent of all files opened in B.C. that year - that's a 624-per-cent
increase in cases over the seven-year period studied.

Changes to the top 10 list include Surrey, which surpassed Vancouver as the
most prolific jurisdiction in the province, and new entries (since 2000)
Kelowna, Prince George and Ridge Meadows.

There's also an obvious shift from setting up grow ops in low-income area
to moving to the suburbs, a trend Nadeau said is supported by an increase
in the size of grow ops.

In 2003, the average number of plants per indoor grow operation was 236, an
increase of nearly 60 per cent from the average number in 1997, and the
average quantity of harvested marijuana seized has tripled since 1997 in
both indoor and outdoor operations.

"I think that's an indication they're looking for bigger places so they can
set up bigger, more sophisticated grow ops," Nadeau said.

Coquitlam now has 1.6 per grow ops per 1,000 population - a whopping
55-per-cent higher than the provincial average.

However, there is some hope.

Delta, Nanaimo, and Abbotsford were in the top 10 jurisdictions in 2000 and
have dropped off the list for 2003. Delta, Nanaimo and Abbotsford have also
put in place active "green teams" to increase enforcement against marijuana
grow ops.

Coquitlam's own green team, the Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) was
established in September 2004 to deal with the city's grow-op problem

"One thing people in Coquitlam should feel good about is that the
enforcement team should make a difference," Plecas said. "Growers should
move away because that's when we start to see a change."

Using Coquitlam as an example, Nadeau also pointed to green teams as a
positive development that will make even more of a difference in coming years.

"It'll be very interesting to see in the future if those numbers don't turn
right around," Nadeau said. "They've done some excellent work, the green
team in Coquitlam."

That said, Plecas added that municipalities need to make sure enough
resources are committed to policing and cited what he called Coquitlam's
"embarrassingly low" police officer-to-resident ratio.

"City council needs to take a more responsible view of what's needed to
truly provide for public safety," he said.

Plecas said another way involves working on a more effective response from
the criminal justice system.

"Police are less able to get to grows, the prosecutors are less likely to
charge on grows and the worst problem of all is that judges are sentencing
people to terms of imprisonment to a lesser degree than ever before and to
no greater amount of time."

In total, 57 per cent of all suspects had at least one prior conviction for
a drug offence and 41 per cent had a prior conviction involving some form
of violence.

The average length of a suspect's criminal history was 13 years and the
average number of prior convictions was seven.

However, the number of cases where charges were laid dropped to 76 per cent
in 2003 from more than 90 per cent in 1997 through 2001, and no one was
sentenced to five years or more in prison.

Nadeau said police have been talking about lax sentencing for years.

"We're going to bring that forward to the attention of the other parts of
the justice system that are involved with us in trying to tackle this
problem because if the sentencing is so low that the criminals don't see it
as a deterrent, that's a problem," Nadeau said. "We need to get together,
look at the report and see what works, what doesn't and re-assess what
strategies we should support."

The $250,000 study was paid for by the RCMP, but Nadeau says there were no
attempts to control the results, even when they were not flattering to police.

Nadeau said, "Like my mom used to say, 'Sometimes you gotta take it like a
man.' Accept the fact that some of the things you've done aren't working,
fix that and move on."