GROW-OPS MUST BE STOPPED

Let's get one thing straight about the Sun's six-part investigative
series into marijuana grow operations:

This isn't about the morality of smoking pot.

This isn't about whether or not it should be legal.

This is about a crisis in Toronto, Ontario and across the country
caused by marijuana grow houses -- which now number up to 15,000 in
the GTA alone -- and the blind eye authorities have turned to them for
too long.

The series revealed three urgent public problems:

* The "grow-op" industry is dominated by violent criminal gangs who
smuggle the bulk of their product to the U.S. in trade for harder
drugs and weapons -- and who laugh at our courts and cops, knowing
that only one in 100 of them will end up in jail.

* Grow houses are decimating local real estate and victimizing
innocent home buyers and hydro customers.

* And they're ridden with mould; a festering public health problem
that will take years to eradicate.

Spare us all the arguments about how legalizing and regulating pot
would save us all money and free up cops.

The truth is, Canada could legalize pot tomorrow and none of these
problems would go away.

It's time we stopped pretending this is a victimless industry --
starting with our federal government, who must set the tone for judges
and Crown attorneys, provincial governments and municipal
authorities.

Everyone who has to pay extra for electricity because of these thieves
is a victim. Everyone who lives next door to one of these ruined
houses is a potential victim, as is everyone who unwittingly buys one
(because most cities have no regulations to force disclosure of their
history). Everyone who has to breathe the often toxic mould spores
grow-ops leave behind is a victim, too.

And then there are all those who end up as victims of gun crimes or of
the crack cocaine trade on our streets -- not to mention the people
exploited to work inside grow-ops.

Is there a logical case for government regulation (and taxation) of
pot? Yes -- arguably one more logical than the feds' current
half-baked decriminalization bill.

But that's not going to happen, outside of tokers' dreams. We need to
deal with reality -- here and now.

It's time for a tough, co-ordinated national strategy that targets the
grow-op scourge and the gangs behind it. That means mandatory prison
time for grow-op masterminds (and seizing their assets); more
resources so cops can bust the hundreds of grow houses they've
identified; stricter rules governing the sale, inspection and cleanup
of former grow homes -- and other smart, no-nonsense measures.

In the weeks to come, we'll monitor what action, if any, our federal,
provincial and municipal leaders take on this.

And if they don't, we'll question what they're smoking.