SUPPLY AND BE DAMNED

Pot Growers Fear For Their Livelihood And Liberty Even More If Decrim Comes
To Pass

Jerry doesn't grow all that much marijuana, maybe a dozen or so plants with
one lamp, but he's still worried. All this talk about decrim and tougher
penalties against growers just isn't making sense to the Montreal man, who
says that the new Cannabis Reform Bill is simply going to make life tougher
on small fry like him.

"I think this is going to be a big help to the Hells Angels," says Jerry,
who requested the Mirror not use his real name, fearing unwanted scrutiny
from other interested parties. "I think that a lot of people who are
[growing small amounts] are going to see what happens. Organized crime has
the recipes, lamps are cheap and everyone knows the basics of growing. The
Hells Angels are not intimidated by stricter punishments for growing, and
there's an endless need for dope."

With demand as high as it is, the reforms are bad news for growers large
and small. As it stands, possession of under 15 grams of marijuana will
result in a potential fine, between 15 and 30 in a fine or a summons to
appear in criminal court and, most important to Jerry and other growers, up
to 14 years in prison for anyone caught with more than 50 plants - double
the penalty as it currently stands. So independent growers are looking at
hard time, and that scares the pants off people like Jerry. And it might
also be a bummer for recreational smokers.

"This might drive up the price of dope," says Jerry, "because the smoother,
less professional people are going to get out of the business. I suspect
that if this goes through, it's going to scare some people away. And when
you have more repression, you're going to get higher prices."

Free enterprise will rule

Not everyone thinks the situation will be that dire, though. Marijuana
Party leader Marc-Boris St-Maurice says the future of marijuana growth,
distribution and consumption are going to remain "business as usual. Very
little will change in the real world. You'll have a higher maximum but
people will still be able to argue for a lower sentence, as they do now,
and the police will still lie about the crop value, and the Compassion Club
will still get busted. Business as usual."

The cops say the same thing. When asked what effect the new legislation
will have on Project Charlemagne, a joint RCMP and local police task force
targetting indoor hydroponic growers in municipalities on the north shore,
RCMP Sergeant Richard Martel says, "It'll be business as usual."

Since September 2001, the Project crackdown on growers has resulted in
hundreds of arrests and the seizure of thousands of plants. In almost
weekly releases, sometimes within days of each other, the Mounties announce
that they have dismantled another indoor hydroponic grow operation and tout
the value of the seizure on the black market. In 2003 alone, there have
been 23 announcements publicizing busts of various size and value. In
total, says Martel, Project Charlemagne has netted 148,400 plants, 768
pounds of buds, 622 kilograms of shake, 1.5 kilos of hash and $226,969 in
cash. Over 400 people have been arrested.

When asked how many of these people had links to organized crime, Sgt.
Martel says, "That's a hard question to answer. But anytime anyone grows
marijuana to sell and not to consume, it has to be considered organized
because there is a network somewhere."

The latest bust, dated May 23, stated that Mountie investigators dismantled
a grow in St-Pierre-de-Broughton, near Thetford Mines, which contained
3,247 cannabis plants in a hen house converted into a hydroponic
greenhouse. Two people were arrested, and equipment, documents, over $5,000
in cash and 106 lamps were seized. Other busts, such as the April 30 arrest
in Oka of Robert Gagnier, 54, raked in, according to an RCMP release, "935
organically grown cannabis plants, 5.5 kilograms of bulk cannabis, 176
grams of cannabis buds and $120,000 in cash. This seizure is worth more
than $1-million on the black market."

St-Maurice, however, disputes the value figures. "From my calculations,
police overestimate by 10 times the value of a crop," he says,
"consistently. Every single time. Thus making a grower look much worse in
the eyes of the law, and that way they justify asking for more severe
penalties."

Chill and out

But will growers get them? If - a big if - the law is passed, will Quebec
judges, among the most lenient in the country when it comes to marijuana
charges, be inclined to hand down stiffer sentences to growers,
particularly those unaffiliated to organized crime?

St-Maurice is skeptical about whether the maximum penalty of 14 years jail
time for large-scale growers will really be enforced by the courts, but he
does predict a chilling effect. He says raising the maximum is another move
by the federal government to seek stiffer sentences for growers, which
judges have by and large been reluctant to hand down.

"The proposed sentences of seven to 14 years will make it harder and less
attractive for the mom and pop growers," he says. "Eighty per cent of
growers are unaffiliated with organized crime. They're everywhere. From the
lowest-rent neighbourhood in Montreal to upper Westmount to Sept-Iles to
Lac St-Jean. Everywhere."

Prior arrests are sure to be a factor in sentencing, something that doesn't
bode well for Marco Renda, a medical marijuana grower and activist living
near Toronto.

"With what I'm growing, I'm now looking at 14 years," says Renda, who grows
without a federal exemption. "I already have a prior for cultivating, so
you can imagine what can happen."

Not that a little thing like 14 years in jail is going to deter Renda from
growing marijuana and distributing seeds, advice and defiance from his Web
site (www.treatingyourself.com). "I welcome the police to try to do
something with me," he says. "I'm not afraid to say, 'Yes, I'm doing it.'
Someone has to."

As for Jerry, who's never been arrested for growing weed, he'll continue
his small operation as before. "I'm just glad I live in Quebec," he says.