JAIL POT GROWERS, CHIEF SAYS

Ontario Police Chiefs Want Minimum Two-Year Sentence

With the number of marijuana grow operations reaching "epidemic
proportions", York Region's top cop wants mandatory minimum sentences
for anyone convicted of cultivating the cash crop.

"There are automatic sentences for crimes involving firearms. We need
minimum sentences for marijuana grow labs and they have got to be
substantive," York Regional Police Chief Armand La Barge told the
Rotary Club of Markham Sunrise at a meeting Wednesday morning.

"We have to let these people know they're not just going to walk away
with house arrest."

Chief La Barge's push is being backed by chiefs across the province
urging the federal government to bring in minimum sentences of two
years as a deterrent for marijuana growers.

"The judicial system must implement tougher sentences and assurance
that judges will impose these stiffer penalties," said a January 2004
Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police report on grow operations.
"Grow ops are a serious threat to the public and police officers."

The association claims there are now more than 15,000 operations in
Ontario, up 250 per cent over the past three to five years.

In York Region alone, 173 pot labs were raided in 2003, up from 170
the year before. Police made 136 arrests, laid 342 charges and found
plants with a street value of $52 million.

Crimes including murder, robbery, and home invasions have all been
linked to local grow operations, Chief La Barge said. He added
although police are often just arresting crop sitters in connection
with the operations, the force has been aggressively pursuing the
organized crime element involved.

However, with the average convicted marijuana grow operator receiving
as little as 90 days to nine months in prison, he said officers still
need help from their judicial partners.

"There needs to be a two-year or one-year minimum sentence to act as a
deterrence," he said. "Some (growers) are just getting house arrest or
fines. They get house arrest and are forced to sit around the same
house they were growing marijuana in. It's not right."