SPLIT-LEVEL POT

Talk about your mortgage helpers. Around the Lower Mainland, there is
a new trend in marijuana grow operations. Upscale homes, some of them
brand new, are occupied by bright lights and blowers instead of bikes
and basketball hoops.

A new hillside subdivision in Maple Ridge has already produced two
grow operations that make poor use of the spectacular Fraser Valley
view. Similarly, the Hillcrest neighbourhood in Langley has produced
an astonishing 12 grow operation raids in a year, and a single block
in Surrey has had six of 12 houses linked to the trade.

Const. Tim Shields of Surrey RCMP explains the economics of this
residential ranching, starting with buying a house for cash: "They
won't even dicker on the price--they'll harvest three or four times,
then sell the house at a significantly reduced rate so it moves
quickly, and then they have legitimate money."

The house is usually damaged, with moisture and mould inside and often
dangerous bootleg wiring on the outside.

But that's not the only hazard. RCMP figure the major players by far
in these large-scale operations are Vietnamese gangs, which make our
local Hells Angels look like chamber of commerce material by comparison.

Courts mostly levy fines on this activity, but it's too easy to place
the blame on them. Judges save the jail cells for violent offences, as
they should. B.C. Solicitor General Rich Coleman complained this week
that even seven-time offenders escape jail, but is jail really going
to deter these gangsters? Even if it would, the trend in federal law
is going the other way.

The federal government, in typically irresponsible style, is toying
with decriminalization for small amounts of pot. Remember, this is the
same Liberal government that opened a medical marijuana mine in
Saskatchewan, and mismanaged it.

It's also the same Liberal government that appoints all the high court
judges, no pun intended.

Decriminalization would at least weaken the grip of large-scale
criminal gangs who finance nastier things with monster crops of marijuana.

Ottawa should get on with it. Save the jail cells for dealers of
heroin, cocaine and crystal meth.

- - Maple Ridge News