SURREY LEADS B.C. IN GROW OPS

Surrey is the B.C. municipality with the largest number of grow op cases,
according to a just-released study that also declares Delta to be a success
story in the war against the illicit pot trade.

"Surrey has surpassed Vancouver as the most prolific jurisdiction in the
province," states the 1997-2003 review of marijuana growing operations in
B.C. that was made public Friday by criminologist Darryl Plecas, a
professor at the University College of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford.

The Plecas study estimates Surrey, with 441 cases, accounted for about one
out of every 10 marijuana cultivation files investigated by police in B.C.
in 2003, the most recent year figures were available.

Vancouver was second with 335 cases (when adjusted for population, Surrey
ranked number six per capita, with Chilliwack number one).

Plecas told The Leader that grow operators are relocating from Vancouver to
Surrey to find roomier locations to conceal their marijuana plants.

"The houses (in Vancouver) simply aren't big enough," Plecas said.

Plecas praised the Surrey RCMP for doing its best to fight the problem
given the number of grow ops and officers available to investigate them,
calling the local detachment "shamefully under-resourced."

Delta, which has more officers per capita than Surrey, is another story,
Plecas said.

"I would say Delta is the best example," he told The Leader. "They have
done a spectacular job of reducing grows there."

In 2000, Delta was one of 10 municipalities in B.C. with the most grow ops,
and by 2003 it was no longer on the list, the Plecas report states.

Surrey, meanwhile, moved from number two in 2000 to number one in 2003.

Mayor Doug McCallum bristled at the comments, saying the Plecas findings
were "erroneous" and based on outdated information.

"That's completely false," McCallum said. "He (Plecas) sits back in his
high chair in Abbotsford and doesn't even attend any grow operations in
Surrey."

McCallum said Surrey's police are "leaders in Canada" in taking down grow
operations.

"I get really upset with him, because he's criticizing the police and the
judicial system, and our police have been leading the country going after
convictions," McCallum said. "And he sits in his little office up there and
writes these flawed reports."

McCallum complained the data used in the report included multiple files on
the same grow operation, inflating Surrey's numbers.

"That's completely not true," Plecas responded, saying his numbers are
based on single police files, one for each suspected grow operation.

Insp. Paul Nadeau, the officer in charge of the RCMP regional coordinated
marijuana enforcement team, said the Surrey increase is the result of
growers moving east from Vancouver and Burnaby into Surrey and other Lower
Mainland municipalities.

Nadeau said in communities with the highest number of marijuana case files
a kind of "grow op fatigue" is setting in, where overloaded police and
prosecutors are less likely to seek convictions.

"There's so much of this stuff, there's a certain desensitization that
takes place," Nadeau said.

The report shows that the current approach to pot enforcement in B.C. isn't
working as well as it should, so authorities need to look at changing
tactics, including imposing tougher punishments for convicted grow
operators and increased resources for investigating and incarcerating
offenders.

Delta Police spokesperson Const. Sharlene Brooks said there is no such
thing as grow op fatigue in Delta, where police estimate there are
currently 16 grow ops, all of which are under investigation.

"We aren't folding our tents," Brooks said.

"In Delta, our philosophy is that when we do an investigation, it's with a
view to laying charges."

The RCMP-funded study shows the number of grow ops in B.C. appears to have
leveled off, but the size and sophistication of individual operations has
increased.

The study estimates 80,000 kilograms of pot were produced in B.C. in 2003,
four times the amount cultivated seven years earlier.

It notes that only one of every five people charged with pot growing gets
convicted, and four of those five don't do any jail time.