COUNCIL SQUABBLES OVER GROW-OPS

Councillor Dooley says RCMP murders should shed light on local
situation, Mayor Elliott says issue not about marijuana, but gun control

Nelson City councillor John Dooley says the courts should crack down
on criminals involved in marijuana grow-ops after the killings of four
RCMP officers on a rural Alberta farm last week.

"A lot of these people aren't the type that are growing a little bit
of dope in their basement and want to have a puff on their back porch
in the evening," Dooley told council at Monday's meeting. "These are
the criminal elements that shoot to kill officers."

Dooley brought up the RCMP slayings because he feels a comparable case
to what happened in Mayerthorpe, Alta. could happen here to the
municipal Nelson City Police force.

" Any day of the week any one of our people would be expected to
protect and look after us an could be faced with a similar situation,"
Dooley said. "This incident that happened up Alberta is a prime
example of four young people doing their job and found that the risks
involved are horrendous, to say the least."

Dooley then read out statistics gathered by provincial Solicitor
General Rich Coleman that show the average person running a grow-op in
B.C. has 15 years of experience. About 41 per cent will have violent
criminal records.

The councillor said Kootenay folk often take the production of
marijuana lightly and don't want to recognize there's often a negative
element associated with it.

"All of us are guilty of this in our community, throughout the
Kootenays and around this table," he said. "We make light of the fact
of the drug scene that's happening in our area. But when a situation
like this happens to a community that has it's own police force, we
can be faced with this situation any day of the week."

But Mayor Dave Elliott shot back at Dooley and said he doesn't
understand where the RCMP killings got off track to become a marijuana
issue.

"The police went there because the follow had stolen cars and stolen
car parts and it's all become about marijuana grow-ops," Elliott said.
"The man had 20 plants in his building but he had several stolen
cars. He had a violent criminal record and he had a gun. This should
be about gun control."

On Tuesday, the National Post reported well-known pot advocate Marc
Emery saying the fact that the Mountie murderer had a small grow-op on
his property is no reason to label all growers as police-hating,
violent lunatics. He wondered why gun advocates, child molesters (the
gunman was a convicted pedophile), Christians and people living in
rural Prairie communities weren't tarred by the same brush, the post
noted.

Elliott said he doesn't want to make light of the grow-ops in the
region by his comments.

"But I just want to say that I think it's a shame that it has become
an issue of marijuana grow-ops because that was a very minor issue,"
he said. "It seems to have got off the rail a little bit there."

The mayor said it is, however important to recognize the four fallen
RCMP officers. He reminded those at the Monday council meeting of the
memorial service to honour the Mounties Thursday at Noon at the
Anglican Church on the corner of Ward and Silica Streets.