TOUGHER PENALTIES URGED TO WEED OUT POT SITTERS

Conditional sentences handed down for people convicted of running
marijuana grow-ops need to be reconsidered, says the alderman leading
the charge against home-grow set-ups. Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart said
the 18-month conditional sentence given to Nguyen Nguyen -- who
watched over a crop of 506 marijuana plants at his Chestermere home --
is "absolutely unacceptable."

"This is organized crime at the neighbourhood level," said
Colley-Urquhart, who is head of a city task force dedicated to wiping
out grow ops.

"This is a drug factory right in the neighbourhood -- this is not some
ma and pa operation."

She said it is unacceptable for anyone in a community like Calgary --
where more than $100 million worth of pot was seized in busts last
year -- not to see the impact the drug trade has.

"This is a slap in the face to the officers who spent hours and hours
of surveillance after they got a tip from the public about this guy,"
she said.

Nguyen, who agreed to let the plants be grown in his home and was paid
$6,000 for a previous harvest, was given the conditional sentence
because it was deemed he was not in line to reap huge rewards from the
operation.

But Colley-Urquhart said sentences need to be harsher, even for the
"babysitters" of pot crops, to show it is not tolerated.

"He was benefitting from the proceeds of crime -- he was caught
red-handed," Colley-Urquhart said, adding a scant 7% of operators
receive jail time and even then, it's only for about a year.

She added the task force is pushing for community impact statements,
similar to victim impact statements, to be read during the sentencing
of growers in order to explain the enormity of the problem.