EXPERTS DON'T AGREE ON MARIJUANA GROW OP PROBLEM

Defence lawyers - who stand to gain most from a crackdown on marijuana grow
operations - are lambasting Chilliwack's get-tough response to grow-ops here.

And even the authors of a University College of the Fraser Valley report on
marijuana grow operations in B.C. disagree on how best to deal with the
problem.

"We've tried and spent a whole lot of money to eliminate the supply of the
stuff and it doesn't work," says Yvon Dandurand, head of the UCFV
criminology department. "It's time to try something new."

But exactly what, he isn't sure.

"If we were to decriminalize or legalize or regulate ... then we would
still have to worry about the huge black market south of the border," he
says. "There's no easy solution."

But he suggests one thing that could be done is direct police resources
more toward the organizers of the network feeding on the huge black market
demand for marijuana.

"There is a high level of organization," to the B.C. grow-ops, he says,
"but not organized in the sense we traditionally think of it."

"If you're looking for a kingpin you may not find one, but a network of
people," he says.

UCFV Professor Darryl Plecas, who co-authored the study, says the findings
show marijuana grow-ops are clearly not "mom and pop" operations growing a
couple of pot plants for a second income.

And the phenomenal growth recorded by the study shows that the
profit-making enterprise in B.C. is "outstripping the capacity of police to
respond," he says.

Most of the 8,010 cases of marijuana grow-operations found by police
between January 1997 and December 2000 came as a result of anonymous tips
and of searches on other criminal matters, not police investigations.

"The police aren't going out of way to get these grow-ops, but tripping
over them or getting anonymous complaints," Professor Plecas says.

Tougher court sentences in B.C. may be the key to driving grow-ops out of
business, he says.

"There are no grow-ops to speak of in Washington State," he points out,
"because the penalties are so severe, why would anybody risk it."

Prison sentences were imposed by B.C. judges in only 18 percent of the
cases, with an average length of 4.5 months, according to the study. Half
the suspects in B.C. grow-ops walk away without any conviction at all, and
more than half of those had prior drug convictions. Forty percent had
violent offences on their record.

"The notion that they are mom and pop operations going on in Chilliwack is
just not true," Prof. Plecas says.

He also notes that the convicted pot growers in B.C. had seven convictions
on record, sometimes for multiple counts of marijuana production, but "no
incremental penalties for prior convictions" imposed by court judges.

He says that only encourages growers to plant larger and larger operations
after a conviction brings no larger punishment. And the $130,000 income
from one grow operation, with the potential for three grows a year, is
incentive enough for anyone with no prospect of higher earnings by legal means.

"All of a sudden, you're making pretty good coin," Prof. Plecas says.

However, he does not believe that decriminalization or legalization would
significantly alter the grow-op situation because of the "incredible
market" for B.C. pot around the world.

Even if a standard marijuana product was legalized, he believes there would
still be a black market for strains of marijuana with boosted THC levels
that would not be tolerated even by governments that had legalized its use.

"The only thing I would say on the positive side of the ledger (of the UCFV
study)," he says, "is that there's hardly any incidents of violence at the
time when the police show up" to take down a grow-op.

Chilliwack City and RCMP officials have announced formation of a "strike
force" of four officers dedicated to busting marijuana grow-ops, and
directing more plainclothes and uniformed officers to drug enforcement duties.

But defence lawyer John Conroy says taking the profit out of black market
enterprises like marijuana grow-ops by legalizing or regulating the product
like government do with alcohol and tobacco is the only way to deal with
the problem.

"We just can't get it through the thick skulls of the people in power," he
says.

"Why don't they prohibit alcohol and tobacco, which are far more harmful,"
he says. Canadian courts have found as found as a fact that there is "no
significant" harm to smoking marijuana, he adds.

"The police want this (tougher enforcement) because it helps expand their
power to intrude into peoples' private affairs," he suggests.

"The whole thing is ludicrous," he adds, because it is the law
criminalizing marijuana that creates the black market that the grow-ops
feed on.

He says the only danger of the grow-ops is that they are forced to operate
underground, without safety inspections, because of the law.

But the police see enforcement as the only answer because they get to
"snoop around" neighbourhoods with their infra-red devices seeking the heat
generated by grow-ops, Mr. Conroy says.

"It's more fun," he suggests, than investigating the disappearance of
native women from the wrong side of Vancouver streets.

"It's absurd. The whole drug war is just a crock of absolute nonsense."

Defence lawyer Suzanne Paterson says she is not surprised by the Chilliwack
RCMP's request for additional resources as a result of the study findings.

"This is a new (RCMP) inspector and very quickly he has enlarged his
kingdom," she says, adding that the $160,000 now earmarked for two more
RCMP officers could be better spent on shelter and activities for children
in Chilliwack.

She also disputes Insp. Mercer's warning about violence around marijuana
grow-ops.

"I do a lot of cases with violence, but I can't think of one that's
associated with pot growing," she says.

There have been two drive-by shootings in Chilliwack, both of them in 1996,
and neither directly related to marijuana grow-operations. Keitha Joan
Llewellyn, 59, was shot to death in her Tretheway Avenue home in March
1996, and 31-year-old Gary Autenreith was shot and killed while standing in
a front window of his Hazel Street home the same month. The two shootings
were not related.

Psychologist Rob Lees fears increased enforcement could backfire and drive
the price of pot up further making grow-ops "more risky" than ever for the
general public.

"If you stack marijuana up against tobacco or alcohol, there aren't many
people around who would say it's worse," says Mr. Lees, who advocated
marijuana decriminalization as an election candidate for the New Democratic
Party.

He says Chilliwack City and RCMP officials may be focusing too tightly on
the local picture and "making the assumption, if you try and limit the
supply then it will stop people from using a substance."

But he says the experience of addiction counsellors, where a supply is
limited, "the addiction goes elsewhere" and no real solution achieved.

He says the goal of child psychologists is "resilient kids making healthy
choices" rather than children fearing harsh punishment for breaking the rules.