IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN: RCMP

"I hate to say it, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. Over
time, the numbers catch up with you."

Before an order was issued yesterday that virtually gagged all but
selected RCMP spokesmen, RCMP Insp. Paul Nadeau -- head of British
Columbia's marijuana enforcement team -- said it was only a matter of
time before there was a tragedy such as the one at
Mayerthorpe.

Other drug cops across the country similarly weighed in on the tragedy
in Alberta.

Halifax Deputy Police Chief Chris McNeil was sitting in his office on
the coast of Nova Scotia -- one province shy of being a country's
breadth away from tiny Mayerthorpe. But he was as good as there.

In his mind. And in his heart.

"The situation in Alberta is devastating, and my heart goes out to
them," he says. "But now it is time to grieve.

"The debate can wait."

It was almost as if McNeil had seen the sign outside the Mayerthorpe
high school yesterday -- "Our hearts go out to you" -- as the small
rural town of 1,600 tries to deal with the shooting deaths of four
local RCMP officers.

He hadn't seen the sign, of course.

But he does have good reason to envision it.

McNeil, a top cop with a lawyer's degree, has a son on his police
force; and a brother. Another brother is with the RCMP, in a
detachment in the Nova Scotia Valley.

"Words cannot do justice to what happened in Alberta," he says. "So it
is best not to try."

Deputy Chief Chris McNeil is not just a cop from a family of cops. He
is chairman of the drug abuse committee for the Canadian Association
of Chiefs of Police, and he knows that marijuana grow-ops have been
atop the priority list in police organizations across this country
since the mid-'90s.

"But we can't get the government and the courts to understand that the
risks and the harm of those grow-ops are not being reflected in
sentencings," he says. "Every investigation is inherently dangerous --
guns, booby traps.

"The final analysis is this: It's too lucrative a business and there
are no (punitive) consequences to doing the crime.

"That has to change."

And that, of course, will be the focus of the "debate" to which McNeil
alluded, and one that will have more oxygen to burn now that four
young RCMP officers have been gunned down in a small town by a
small-town criminal known for his violence and unpredictability.

Ron Tavener -- former member of the Toronto police biker squad, long
time member of the drug unit, and now superintendent of Toronto's 23
Division -- understood the frustration that was evident in Insp. Paul
Nadeau's candidness.

"And I agree with him," Tavener says.

Supt. Ron Tavener is Deputy Chief Chris McNeil's equivalent on the
Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police. Like McNeil, he chairs his
group's drug abuse committee.

"There are an estimated 5,000 grow-ops in the GTA alone," Tavener
says. "At $1,000 a plant, and three crops a year, you're talking big
money with little consequence.

"Courts have yet to come to terms with the dangers that such
operations present -- from guns, to booby traps ..."

To situations like Mayerthorpe?

"Yes," Tavener says. "Obviously the tragedy there is foremost in
everyone's mind. And that is where it should stay for now. But it also
shows what can happen."

Barry King is chief of police in Brockville, a picturesque city on the
shores of the St. Lawrence. He is also Deputy Chief Chris O'Neil's
predecessor as chairman of the drug abuse committee for the Canadian
Association of Chiefs of Police.

"Is there an answer?" he says. "How about a strong deterrent? How
about mandatory minimums?

"What happened in Alberta is a travesty," he says. "Will it bring
about a groundswell of support to strengthen sentencing? You bet."

Brockville Police Chief Barry King has yet to see someone going down
for the long haul as a result of being convicted of running a grow-op
in his relatively small city.

"The stiffest? How about a house grow-op that was putting out almost
$1 million a year (in marijuana)?" he asks. "What about the guy behind
it getting a conditional discharge and a period of house arrest? It's
unbelievable."