QUEEN CITY OR GREEN CITY?

Grow Show Study Proof Nelson Isn't The Pot Plantation Mecca Some Might Think

Despite its reputation as a hot spot for pot, Nelson and its rural outposts
are by no means provincial epi-centres for marijuana cultivation and sales.

Based on marijuana cultivation cases tracked between 1997 and 2000, there
are more grass growing operations in the Central Kootenay than many other
B.C. regions, but overall, our part of the province generates a tiny
portion of B.C.'s yearly grow op investigations. If there is one thing the
study does make clear however, it is that the B.C. grass industry is
growing big time, including in and around the Heritage City.

(continued p. 3 "Study sketches portrait of typical grower")

The stats come from a 2002 study compiled by the University College of the
Fraser Valley's (UCFV) Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

According to the study, which tracked 11,733 B.C. pot growing case files
from Jan. 1, 1997 to Dec. 31, 2000, local police and RCMP accounted for
just 1.5 per cent of all the province's pot growing busts, compared to 81
per cent in Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

Based on a provincial average of 1.18 cultivation cases for every 1,000
people in a region, the Central Kootenay has more grow op busts than most
parts of the province outside the Lower Mainland and Vancouver
Island. There are roughly 1.5 cases here for every thousand residents,
which is 28 per cent higher than the B.C. average.

The only other part of the so-called Heartland that compares is the
Columbia-Shuswap at 26 percent. Despite last week's $500,000, 1,100-plus
plant bust in West Trail, our neighbours in Trail, Castlegar and the East
Kootenay are considerably less likely to be growing weed for a
living. Kootenay-Boundary cultivation cases are 36 per cent below the B.C.
average, and East Kootenay numbers are even lower, at 53 per cent below
average.

The study charted cases in eight regions - the Lower Mainland-Fraser
Valley, Vancouver Island-Coast, Thompson/Okanagan, Caribou, Kootenay, North
Coast, Nechako and North East.

So per capita where does the most grass grow? The Fraser Valley had 68 per
cent more cases than the provincial average - police busted 177 grow shows
in Chilliwack in 2000 and 181 in Abbotsford, The Comox Valley-Strathcona
region on central Vancouver Island was 70 per cent higher, and Nanaimo,
with 199 grow ops shut down in 2000 was 60 per cent above the B.C. average.

Grass growers are popping up at a staggering pace in Vancouver in
particular, where the number of cultivation cases soared 309 per cent from
548 in 1997 to 2,497 by the end of 2000. With its large population, the big
city came eighth for cases per capita. Back here at home, the study says
Central Kootenay cops investigated 36 grow op cases in 1997, compared to 93
in 2000 - an increase of 172 per cent.

Nelson City Police Chief Dan Maluta says those numbers have very likely
increased since 2000.

"I'd hate to venture a guess," says Maluta.

"But my anecdotal information would say that the tide has not been stemmed
whatsoever."

Despite the fact the UCFV figures are more than two yeas old, Maluta feels
the stats are accurate, and the study itself is well done.

"It's a huge sample size," he says. "Eleven-thousand cases is
statistically very significant."

The study shows that between 1997 and the start of 2001, police all over
B.C. saw a 36 per cent increase in the number of growing operations they
were tipped off on. The size of the grow shows has been jumping by about
40 percent each year. Each operation, worth between $100,000 and $130,000,
averaged 166 live plants, with 3.7 kilograms of harvested week.

Maluta agrees grow ops in and around Nelson are getting bigger and more
common, too.

"We're starting to see the level of sophistication here that they have in
the Lower Mainland.

During the time of the study, police seized 1.2 million pot plants and
8,646 kilograms of harvested marijuana valued between $462 million and
$1.25 billion. Statistics Canada estimate 40 per cent of all Canadian grow
ops are in B.C.

Who's doing the growing? The study showed that out of 10,373 suspects, 80
per cent were male, 77 per cent were Caucasian and averaged 35 years of
age. Most had a prior criminal record spanning an average of 13 years and
seven prior convictions. Many of the suspects relocated to B.C. from other
parts of Canada or outside the country. The study also noted a significant
increase in the number of suspects of Vietnamese origin.

As for punishment, 2,551 offenders were convicted, or 54 per cent of those
charged, most of them fined. Eighteen per cent of them went to jail for an
average of 4.5 months.

Nelson's top cop suggests that's where police are finding their major
frustrations - in charges and sentencing.

"Ourselves and the RCMP don't have time to deal with all of them, in terms
of charges," says Maluta. "Many of the operations end up being destroyed
without charges because we don't have the resources to deal with them."

The study is available at the website for the International Centre for
Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Policy (http://www.icclr.law.ubc.ca/)