BUSTED ONE WEEK, ON FIRE THE NEXT

A Murrayville house busted by police only days earlier as a pot house
sustained $20,000 in damage on Tuesday, when a butane camp stove burst into
flames, setting the kitchen on fire.

The incident illustrates how tampering in a grow-op house can imperil lives.

District fire chief Rob Clausen said that natural gas and electricity had
been disconnected after police busted the house on March 4. Using the
butane stove as the only source for cooking could have had disastrous
consequences, he said.

With houses built close together, a larger fire could have put neighbours
at risk had the flames spread. "It's unsafe to use an open fire for
cooking," Clausen said.

The fire occurred in an upscale neighbourhood where police have conducted
12 drug raids in the past 15 months.

Murrayville firefighters who rushed to the scene discovered the electrical
meter missing, and the gas lever in the locked position. Clausen said
firefighters know that their job is hazardous, but drug ops are making
firefighting more dangerous.

"It's an inherently risky business," Clausen acknowledged. "You can't fight
a fire effectively and be entirely safe."

Had the Township had a building maintenance bylaw, the fire may never have
occurred.

The legislation, which Langley RCMP has asked the Township to adopt, would
force property owners to restore homes in which drugs have been produced to
a standard suitable for human habitation.

Laws Are Too Lax

Lax laws are putting out the welcome mat for marijuana growers, and, kilo
for kilo, their harvest is linked directly to the cocaine trade, Solicitor
General Rich Coleman said on Thursday.

"The police are doing their job. They are pursuing the grow-ops. The
problem is that after they take the grow-ops down, the system is letting
them down," he said in a phone interview from Victoria.

Drug infractions in B.C. are a federal offence, and cases are decided by
federally-appointed judges, Coleman noted.

"So the challenge is that if you look at the two jurisdictions, 82 per cent
of people who are charged and convicted of a grow operation offence do not
receive a high enough fine or a jail term," he said.

Coleman said that across the border in Washington state's Whatcom County,
the sentence for a first offence is a minimum of three months in jail.

"You can be charged up to seven times for a grow op before the court system
will send someone to jail in B.C.," Coleman said.

"So right now we are the softest jurisdiction in Canada and probably North
America, not just for marijuana, but for all drugs. That is not acceptable."

"You can count the number of grow ops in Whatcom County on one hand,
whereas we will probably do a couple of thousand in the Fraser Valley.

"It doesn't take anybody with any level of intelligence to figure what is
wrong. Our jurisdiction hasn't been serious and we want them to become
serious. The push from my office to the Federal Solicitor General's office
has been very strong,"

Federal Solicitor General Wayne Easter is currently in B.C. viewing with
police the extent of the illicit drug problem in neighbouring Surrey. "He
has seen firsthand what the problem is and he is saying that the courts
have to back up the police and give stiffer sentences," Coleman said.

The link with serious crime cannot be discounted, he said.

"We should be very clear what grow-ops are. They are the base of organized
crime in B.C."

"This is insidious, quite frankly," Coleman said. "Law enforcement officers
need more help and that help has to come from the court system."

Coleman said that 60 Lower Mainland murders committed within one ethnic
community over the past four years are linked to drugs. He revealed that
Easter has appointed Kevin Begg, head of police services in B.C., to chair
a committee that will examine current laws and make recommendations not
only on more severe punishment, but on more extensive measures to seize the
assets of pot growers.