BYLAW TAKING ITS TOLL ON GROW OPS

Police and city officials declared Chilliwack's fight against marijuana
grow-ops an evolving success yesterday, suggesting an innovative bylaw is
pushing the illegal ventures away from residential neighbourhoods.

Supt. Dale McGowan joined Mayor Clint Hames, strike force representative
Cpl. Roxanne Dowden and city officials Lisa Thompson and Rob Carnegie for a
scheduled media gathering Thursday morning. It was the first such event
since the city's Nuisance, Noxious of Offensive Trades, Health and Safety
Bylaw went into effect Aug. 3 last year.

Cpl. Dowden estimated 30 per cent of all the grow ops she finds are inside
rental properties. According to Thursday's speakers, that number was
significantly higher prior to the bylaw; which isn't just a punishment
bylaw for dope growers, Hames explained, but also a safeguard to protect
neighbourhood property values by insuring homes used as grow-ops are
returned to safe and inhabitable dwellings.

"The move to fewer, larger operations in my mind is a better situation," he
said,

"But there's still too many and we're still going to go after them all."

Reading from a prepared statement, Supt. McGowan made sure to remind people
that drug production often has serious side effects.

"Marijuana grow operations have been linked to organized crime and
violence. Homicides and assaults are carried out to exert control over the
production and distribution of marijuana. Home invasions, sometimes using
violence, are perpetrated to steal harvests in all area of our community.
Police are encountering increased levels of sophistication, increased
security measures and leaded firearms_when conducting grow-operation searches."

Those searches are becoming more common each year. In 2004, Dowden said
police received 400 reports of active operations.

As those illegal gardens grow in size (averaging about 500 plants this
year) and shift away from smaller homes, McGowan said police will respond
accordingly.

"As it changes and adapts we will adapt and modify as well."

Hames agreed, though the city's pot bylaw seems to be working well enough
to garner a lot of interest from communities across Canada.

"I get calls every week from around the country_they take the bylaw and
scratch the city of Chilliwack out of it," he said.

"The bylaw is making a difference."