CURBING GROW OPS

If Canadians haven't been especially alert to the plague of indoor
marijuana factories -- "grow ops" -- in this country, they should be
now. The slaying of four RCMP officers in Alberta during a grow op
raid has vaulted the issue high on the public agenda.

The sheer speed at which grow ops have sprung up is a reflection not
only of the huge profits they generate, but of the ease with which
they can be set up under the camouflage of ordinary neighbourhoods,
and of the fines and light sentences courts have typically handed out
to operators who have been caught.

These factors have conspired to make grow ops a lucrative industry in
Ontario alone -- some estimates go as high as $12 billion -- and a prime
target of organized crime, together with a heightened threat of
violence and guns.

Police routinely find weapons when they bust grow ops. And grow ops
are targets for other criminals, making them that much more dangerous
to people in neighbourhoods in which they're hidden.

While police have been able to bust grow ops with increasing
frequency, the factories have been springing up at a faster pace than
they can be shut down.

Canadian police forces make a good case that they need new tools and
resources if they are to have any hope of turning the tide on this
increasingly dangerous type of crime.

Reacting to the revulsion that swept the country in the wake of the
RCMP slayings, Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan says she is
prepared to consider toughing up the penalties in a bill now before
Parliament on marijuana.

While it decriminalizes simple possession, it proposes a maximum
sentence of 14 years in prison for anyone caught with more than 50
marijuana plants.

Police have called for an automatic minimum sentence of five to seven
years for big-time growers.

But even without that change, the courts could be handing out stiffer
sentences than they have been, under existing law.

And public utilities should not be constrained by privacy laws from
reporting suspicious spikes in power usage, a telltale sign of a grow
op.

McLellan also acknowledged that battling the grow ops is in part a
"resource issue," but she backed away from making an immediate pledge
of more money for police to chase down these operations.

The exponential growth of highly profitable grow ops should tell
McLellan that the criminals are capable of generating all the cash
they need to finance an even greater expansion.

McLellan should give the police sufficient resources to curb that
dangerous trend.