COST OF GROW OPS JOLTING

Stolen Power Costs Millions

OTTAWA taxpayers are getting ripped off paying a share of millions of
dollars in stolen electricity and insurance costs accumulated by illegal
pot growing operations across the province. A study released yesterday by
the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police estimates that marijuana "grow
ops" cost the province's taxpayers $100 million a year -- 85% of it from
illegal electricity theft.

The study, titled Green Tide: Indoor Marijuana Cultivation and its Impact
on Ontario, was compiled by the Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario. It
examines data from 2000 to 2002 and makes projections to the end of this year.

It estimates that indoor growing operations increased by 250% during that
time, with as many as 15,000 in operation in 2002 and 1.2 million plants
seized by police.

The mushrooming problem is also popping up here, said Ottawa police Staff
Sgt. Marc Pinault.

'INUNDATED'

"We are totally inundated by them. There is no difference between Ottawa
and anywhere else and that's a phenomenon we have been talking about for
three years," he said. "Nothing has changed at all."

Although Pinault wouldn't hazard a guess as to exactly how many pot grow
ops are operating in the city, he said the figure is in the hundreds.

"There are probably lots more we don't know about," he said.

They are located throughout the city, including wealthy neighbourhoods,
rural communities and middle class suburbs. An integrated approach with
electricity and insurance companies and others is key to stemming the
proliferation, said Pinault.

LOPSIDED BATTLE

"It is out of control and organized crime, the people behind all these grow
ops, have all the time, money and resources," he said.

Cash-strapped police departments across the country don't have unlimited
resources to track down all the grow ops, Pinault added.

An aspect of these illegal operations often overlooked are the victims.

The provincial report found that between 2000 and 2003 as many as 10,000
children and their families, often recent immigrants, were living in the
grow ops and tending the plants.

Criminals view the potential profit of working in a $12-billion-a-year
industry as far outweighing the punishment -- a maximum seven years behind
bars.