RIVERVIEW GOES TO POT

An advocate for mental health patients describes the discovery of a
marijuana grow operation on the Riverview Hospital site as "disgustingly
ironic."

Roderick Louis, who heads the Patient Empowerment Society that represents
approximately 130 Riverview patients, says the expansive property is
literally going to pot.

The lands should be used, he says, to house patients with severe mental
illnesses, not as a film location.

"It is disgustingly ironic that government policy over the last 10 years or
so has resulted in the ghettoization of well over 2,000 adults with severe
mental illness to skid row, where they quickly become addicted to drugs,"
Louis said.

"And at the same time, the 200-acre park-like site, where they could be
living, rather than accommodating them is being used to grow drugs, that at
the end of the day, some of them become addicted to."

On Aug. 21, the Coquitlam RCMP removed 500 marijuana plants and related
equipment from an upper storey of the Crease Unit - a building no longer
used by the hospital, but regularly rented out as a set for movie shoots,
commercials and television shows.

A security guard discovered the grow operation, which the RCMP described as
"large and sophisticated."

Louis said the discovery of marijuana on the Riverview Lands should not
come as a surprise.

"Marijuana is not a new crop at the Riverview Hospital site ... It's been
grown periodically, out in the open for as long as, I would bet, marijuana
has been a popular, recreational drug," Louis said.

"That's not to say that marijuana has been a hugely, extensively cultivated
crop, but it's a big site with a tremendous amount of hills and nooks and
crannies, many valleys and trees that are good camouflage for marijuana and
consequently, it does get grown."

But Denis Racine, a spokesman for B.C. Buildings Corp. (BCBC), which owns
and manages the Crease building, says this is the first time marijuana has
been discovered at the site.

"We have 24-hour security constantly on the Riverview site, and it includes
inspection of all the buildings, even those that are non-occupied, so
that's why it's somewhat surprising with the security that we have there
that something like this could go on," Racine said.

BCBC is undertaking a review of its security protocols, Racine said, and
additional security procedures may be added.

"We're very, very concerned about the incident and we're co-operating fully
with the RCMP as their investigation proceeds with this," he said.