POT RAID RILES RESIDENTS

Regional district directory calls RCMP operation that blew out windows
in one house 'abuse and harassment'

RCMP officers combed Texada Island on Monday, August 16 looking for
marijuana plants, much to the outrage of many residents.

Dave Murphy, Powell River Regional District director for Texada
Island, said the operation was a "belligerent assault on our
community. It was provocative. It was distasteful. It was aggressive.
It was sadistic. It was very bad. They blew windows out in one house."

Murphy said his property was buzzed by a helicopter. "For an hour they
hovered above the house and the garden. Not only here, but many places
on Texada. It was just a belligerent, aggressive assault."

Murphy has received many phone calls from irate islanders, he said.
"People are up in arms here. There's talk of a town hall meeting.
There's talk of marching on the RCMP station in Gillies Bay. It was an
abuse and harassment of 1,000 residents here."

Elaine Purgavie, who owns 53 acres on Texada, said the helicopters
buzzed her house so closely she could have thrown a rock into the
window. "I felt like what it would be like in a war zone," she said.
"They flew so low, they were right on top of my house. That sound is
so unnerving. It goes right in your heart. I can't even describe how
upsetting it is."

Constable Beth Blackburn is the spokeswoman for the RCMP Drug
Awareness Program. She said the operation on Texada Island was part of
a yearly outdoor marijuana extraction project. "Prior to starting we
had identified over 500 sites, not only on Texada Island, because this
is not just targeting Texada. This is targeting areas on Vancouver
Island, the outer islands and the Powell River area on the Sunshine
Coast. What we are targeting is outdoor marijuana growth. Our goal is
to reduce the supply of the marijuana that is going to hit our streets
and to put a bit of a dent in organized crime."

Blackburn said the RCMP partners with the Canadian military in the
project and use some of its pilots and helicopters. At any one time
there can be 30 officers involved in the project.

Police did find marijuana plants on Texada. Blackburn couldn't say how
many in total, but she said that in one area police found 400 plants.

Most of the marijuana is grown on Crown land, however, there have been sites
found on private property. "The bottom line is marijuana is illegal. It's
illegal to grow it, it's illegal to sell it, it's illegal to possess it. So
if it's unfortunate enough to be in somebody's backyard and the plot is big
enough for us to be concerned about, then we will do the enforcement on it."