MARIJUANA GROWER JAILED FOR 9 MONTHS

The lure of huge profits is drawing ordinary citizens into the crime
of growing marijuana in their homes despite the health and safety
risks and the prospect of going to jail, a judge in Newmarket has warned.

"The potential financial rewards were so great that hundreds of
persons in this area with no prior criminal history were becoming
involved in this activity," Justice Joseph Kenkel said in a recently
released judgment.

Kenkel sentenced Van Hai Phi, who had no prior criminal record, to
nine months in jail for marijuana possession and production and hydro
theft.

Canadian courts rarely jail first-time offenders for non-violent
offences. The judge said he wanted to send the message that courts
will not tolerate the region north of Toronto becoming a "haven for
drug traffickers and their suppliers."

Phi could have received up to 14 years in prison for the production
charge alone.

York Region Police stumbled onto the 732 marijuana plants when they
visited Phi's house to investigate a traffic accident last year.
Instead of letting police in, Phi fled and hopped over fence in the
backyard, Kenkel said.

Police found buckets of chemicals and an illegal hydro meter bypass
designed to disguise how much power was being used to grow the plants.
An estimated $85-million worth of hydro is stolen in Ontario each year.

"Unfortunately, only a jail sentence would sufficiently deter Mr. Phi
and others like him from participation in these lucrative
enterprises," said Kenkel.

"A jail sentence is also necessary to denounce the substantial risks
posed by placing these operations in residential areas."

Police estimate grow ops can generate more than $200,000 a year by
producing several crops. It's been called a billion-dollar-a-year
business, run in about 50,000 homes across the country -- 10,000 of
those in Toronto.

That kind of money attracts other criminals, noted Kenkel. He said a
number of violent invasions of grow operations have posed an
unacceptable risk to neighbours.

Former grow ops present health concerns as well. Mould usually
flourishes in the houses, which are sometimes cleaned and sold to
unsuspecting buyers, say police.

And despite the hazardous conditions, children live in many grow ops
because they help the operators disguise what is really going on, say
police.

When police dismantle the operations, they go into those same homes in
biohazard suits and oxygen masks.

In the judgment, Kenkel said police have laid nearly 1,000 charges and
shut down 820 grow ops in York Region in the past seven years. A total
of 110 children lived in those homes.

Markham and Vaughan traditionally have the most grow ops in York
Region, followed by Richmond Hill and Newmarket, police statistics
show.