GROW OP PROBLEM WILL ONLY GET WORSE

As bad as Richmond's marijuana growing problem currently is, things are
going to get worse in Richmond before they get better.

"We have a real problem, the whole Lower Mainland has a real problem, and
it's going to get worse," Richmond RCMP Supt. Ward Clapham said Tuesday.

Richmond has as many as 600 homes suspected of growing the lucrative crop
and two innocent families were recently victimized by armed thieves.

An all-out effort by neighbouring Surrey to shut down its plague of grow
ops will likely force organized crime, which controls much of the illegal
industry, to relocate to other areas including Richmond where there isn't
as much heat.

In November, Surrey RCMP dedicated a 21-member police team to work
exclusively to shut down that city's marijuana production during a
nine-month campaign. Richmond's marijuana fighting team comprises five members.

Surrey this week also approved bolstering its police ranks with another 95
members, which will give its detachment a ratio of one police officer per
750 residents.

In Richmond, Clapham says he's hoping the city will approve his request for
20 more police officers over the next five years in order to maintain the
status quo of one officer per 900 residents.

"We're stretched. As a detachment, we're maxed out and our members are
burning out."

Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, concerned about the level of violence in
these two home invasions, said that if the marijuana problem warrants more
policing resources, that's what should happen.

Told about Surrey's stepped-up efforts to combat its marijuana problems and
the implications this could have for Richmond, Brodie said: "If that is
happening, we'll take action to stop it."

Brodie noted that in the late 1990s, when Surrey clamped down on problems
surrounding massage parlours, more of those types of businesses opened in
Richmond. That forced Richmond, in 2000, to introduce stricter bylaws and
regulations.

Clapham said extra policing alone isn't going to solve the problem. He said
all parts of the community, including government, businesses, families and
homeowners, need to work together to eradicate the problems associated with
the marijuana trade.

While local police stepped up enforcement following five street-racing
related deaths in Richmond in 2002, government also made changes to driving
laws that boosted the effort. That resulted in real change, Clapham said,
noting that in 2003, there were no street-racing deaths in the city.

New rental regulations and disclosure requirements on the sales of homes
would encourage property owners to be more diligent in monitoring their
properties and that would deter marijuana growers, Clapham said.

Asked whether his marijuana team needs more members, Clapham said
councillors could simply instruct him to take officers working in other
areas, like street enforcement or break-and-enter investigations, and
reallocate them to the "Green Team."

"But there's a price to pay," he said, noting that these other areas would
be less serviced.

A family victimized around dinner time last Friday by a group of armed grow
rippers, agreed the government needs to do more to protect residents, but
so do police.

They began renting their West Richmond house in December, and were never
informed it had previously contained a marijuana growing operation. Had
they been told by their landlord, they would never have rented it, they
said. They would also like to see police give out more of this type of
information so that people can make informed decisions about where they are
going to live.

Another home invasion victim, who suffered a gash to his head courtesy a
gun-wielding grow ripper, agrees.

If landlords or homeowners know a house has contained a grow op, they
should be required by law to disclose that, he said.

Clapham said Lower Mainland law enforcement is planning to turn up the
pressure on marijuana growers.

He said the RCMP is looking at coordinating its grow-op fighting resources
and considering establishing an integrated grow-op team for the entire
Lower Mainland, based on the same philosophy that created the new
Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.