MARIJUANA MOTION A BUST

A COPE councillor's request to have city staff examine the feasibility of
legalizing marijuana grow operations would be a waste of council's time and
the public's money, says NPA Coun. Gordon Price.

Price said Coun. Fred Bass' motion at a recent committee meeting-which was
defeated, although Bass plans to put it forward again if re-elected-would
be better discussed by members of parliament, who have the power to change
the country's drug laws.

"I didn't get elected for that," said Price. "Fred brings these motions
forward knowing full well, of course, that they will fail-he counts on it
because he's not going to take responsibility for what the cost
implications of this are."

Bass, however, defended his motion, saying it's time council took a
leadership role in addressing the city's grow-op problem. Police estimate
there could be up to 10,000 marijuana grow-ops in the city and Bass said
councillors should stop pretending that "we're going to drive this into the
ground."

Since last summer, police have busted about 1,000 of the clandestine indoor
farms, with only 35 per cent of the busts resulting in charges against the
growers. Marijuana growing is one of B.C.'s biggest industries and will
only get bigger as long as it remains underground, he said.

"Getting a staff report on the feasibility of legalizing grow-ops makes a
lot of sense, and it's something we should do," Bass said.

"It's time we start opening our eyes and looking at those possibilities.
We're stuck in a very ambivalent situation."

While Price acknowledges the grow-op epidemic is a problem, he said
council's only power to tackle it is by continuing its support of Grow
Busters, a police-led team that works with city inspectors, B.C. Hydro and
the fire department to shut down grow-ops.

"When you can't deal with the problem at its roots, you have no choice but
to deal with the consequences," he said. "And the consequences themselves
are serious. While it may be futile to fight the war on drugs, I'm not sure
that anyone thinks that the alternate second-best strategy is complete
surrender."

Two weeks ago, Mayor Philip Owen, Price and the seven other NPA councillors
voted to spend $480,000 to extend the Grow Busters program by another three
years, with Bass and his fellow COPE Coun. Tim Louis registering negative
votes.

Asked why he voted against the program, Bass said he wasn't sure that he
had voted against it. He then agreed Grow Busters had to be extended.

"I think we have to do Grow Busters for now, but in the long run, it's no
solution."

His colleague Louis thinks the money spent on Grow Busters would be better
spent investigating organized crime and higher-level drug operations.

"I'm not going to lose sleep over somebody wanting to grow a little bit of
marijuana," Louis said.

Since Grow Busters formed in July 2000, the team has shut down 1,114
grow-ops that potentially would have generated about $200 million in
marijuana sales. Police also seized about $400,000 in cash, according to a
city report.

At the same committee meeting, Bass also got a motion passed that called
for the provincial government to request that the federal government share
proceeds of crime money with the city, particularly money recovered in
grow-ops.

Price acknowledged that request would likely fall on deaf ears. As for
legalizing grow operations, Price said he'd rather see debate around
treatment and programs for drug abusers first. "It would be a mistake to
legalize first until you have also at the same time brought in strategies
that you can be pretty confident are going to be needed."