GROW OP INDUSTRY LEAVING POLICE BEHIND

VICTORIA - Marijuana grow ops are popping up faster than police can hope to
deal with them, according to a new report done for the RCMP by a university
crime expert.

The study which looked at almost 12,000 grow op reports from every area of
the province over four years, found police can't cope with the burgeoning
industry.

The business is probably the province's fastest growing with the number of
operations that police discover growing by an average 36 per cent a year,
the report found.

Operations are growing larger and more sophisticated, with the average size
increasing at 40 per cent a year. Solicitor General Rich Coleman has
called for tougher laws against grow ops. Coleman said less than one in
five people, convicted of running grow ops in B.C. serves any jail time.

But in Washington State almost half those convicted get a jail term of five
years or more, he said.

"They're sending a totally different message relative to their acceptance
of this particular activity in their economy," said Coleman.

Chuck Beyer of the B.C. Marijuana Party said the U.S. is the last place to
look for an example.

The U.S. has seven times as many citizens in jail as Canada on a per capita
basis, he said, in part because of tough drug sentences. Canada would have
to build seven times as many prisons and jail thousands of citizens to
match the U.S. approach, he said.

"And it's not working," Beyer said. "They haven't cut down drug use." The
real answer is to legalize marijuana, he said. The study found the average
seizure-166 live plants and 3.7 kg of marijuana-is worth somewhere between
$100,000 and $130,000. Firearms were found in about six per cent of cases.
During the four-year period, police seized 1.2 million plants and 8.6
tonnes of dried marijuana, worth between $500 million and $1 billion
depending on prices.

Darryl Plecas of the University College of the Fraser Valley was part of
the study team.

He said the flood of grow ops has overwhelmed police. Most cases that came
to police attention resulted from public complaints or an accidental
discovery while police were investigating an unrelated matter.

"The high volume of marijuana cultivation activity in the province has
actually hindered police capacity to respond, let alone engage in proactive
enforcement activities," the report found.

In 2000, police were too overloaded to take action on one-quarter of the
reports of grow operations.

Police only laid charges in about half of the 8,000 cases they found
justified. In most of the rest they simply seized the plants and let the
growers go.

Out of some 12,000 reported cases, only 2,255 resulted in charges being
laid. Only half those people were convicted. And among those convicted,
only one in five went to jail with the average sentence of 4.5 months.

The report found that most suspects in the cases reviewed had some prior
criminal record, with an average of seven convictions. The report also
highlighted a growing role for people of Vietnamese origin in the industry
in the Lower Mainland.

A report last year by the Organized Crime Agency of B.C. warned that
increasing pressure on grow ops on the Lower Mainland was resulting in them
moving out into smaller communities. Criminals were also shifting from
grow ops to producing drugs like Ecstasy, the report found.

The agency estimates there are 15,000 to 20,000 grow operations in the
province and said organized crime groups have taken control of many of
them. It estimated the industry's value of $6 billion, or 4.5 per cent of
all economic activity in the province.