POLICE HAVE BEEN WANTING TOUGHER SENTENCES FOR GROW-OP CASES FOR YEARS

The benefits of large-scale marijuana growing operations far outweigh
the risks, a local police chief said Friday.

"When criminals are doing a risk-benefit analysis, the amount of money
they can make is in the millions and millions of dollars," said
Cornwall Community Police Service Chief Dan Parkinson.

"The punishment for getting caught is minor in comparison."

On Thursday, four RCMP officers were shot dead while guarding a grow
operation crime scene in northern Alberta.

Immediately following the incident, Canada's public safety minister,
Anne McLellan, announced the government was looking into implementing
stiffer penalties for drug traffickers.

Parkinson said the call for tougher sentences is nothing new to him
and his counterparts across the province.

"The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police has been crying out for
years on this issue, saying the sentences should be much more severe,"
said Parkinson, who serves as secretary-treasurer for the group. "The
maximum sentence I can recall in relation to a grow operation was one
year."

A bill currently before the House of Commons would make possession of
up to 15 grams of marijuana punishable by a fine of $150 for adults
and $100 for minors.

Under the same legislation, growers caught with more than three plants
would face up to five years in jail, or 18 months plus a $25,000 fine.
Anybody with more than 25 plants could face 10 years in jail, while
there would be maximum sentences of up to 14 years for operations with
more than 50 plants.

In recent years, Cornwall has become one of the busiest border
crossings when it comes to drugs entering the United States from Canada.

Last year, RCMP officers nabbed close to 450 kilograms of pot headed
south of the border, while city police took close to 160,000 grams of
marijuana off city streets. Dozens of drug raids also accounted for
the seizure of close to 350 grams of other drugs such as cocaine,
hashish and ecstasy.

Police have also been successful in shutting down a number of outdoor
grow operations found throughout S,D and G over the past few years,
seizing thousands of marijuana plants worth tens of millions of dollars.