GANGS FORCE OUT MOM-AND-POP POT GROWERS

Asian gangs and outlaw motorcycle clubs have squeezed out small independent
marijuana growers, according to both a former pot grower and an RCMP
spokesman interviewed by The Leader.

Randy Caine, who has waged a lengthy court battle to repeal Canada's
Criminal Code regarding marijuana, says the encroachment of organized crime
has driven out the "mom-and-pop" growers who used to dominate the trade.

"When I was a grower, I was growing for other pot smokers, keeping it
mellow," Caine said.

He and other independent growers he knows closed up shop because organized
crime has taken over.

"It has driven out the good people," Caine complained. "That's the tragedy
behind it."

RCMP Sgt. Grant Learned believes much public acceptance of pot growing, as
noted in opinion polls, is based on a "dated" image of small-time operators.

"Do not confuse the mom-and-pop pot growers who have one large single plant
in their basement or closet for their personal pot use, with the large
industrial types of grow operations that we're usually finding," Learned
warned.

Those operations can be found in virtually every new housing development in
every part of Surrey and other municipalities such as Langley, Coquitlam and
West Vancouver, Learned said.

A study by the Surrey RCMP drug section sets the number of grow ops in
Surrey at between 3,500 to 4,500, most of them located in new homes.

The new home grow ops are, almost without exception, operated by outlaw
bikers and Asian gangs who have turned the B.C. pot trade into a
multi-billion dollar export business, Learned said.

It's an ironic turn of events according to Caine, who recalls B.C. residents
began growing their own pot in the early 1980s to avoid dealing with
organized criminals in Columbia.

However, the increasing popularity of "B.C. bud" in the U.S. and other
foreign markets attracted the attention of big-time criminals, who forced
out the independents, Caine and Learned said.

Independents who try to stay in business tend to meet unfortunate fates,
Learned said, as in the recent court case that revealed a group of men with
gang connections took a Surrey man hostage in his own Whalley grow
operation, inflicting severe beatings while they made him tend the plants.

While Caine and Learned agree on the nature of the problem, they part
company when it comes to solutions. Caine argues legalizing pot would
eliminate criminal involvement, while Learned calls for continued police and
court efforts to control the trade.