POLICE CAN'T KEEP UP WITH MARIJUANA GROW OPS: STUDY

Delta has experienced the highest increase in marijuana grow operations of
any B.C. municipality, according to a four-year study that shows B.C.
police have been unable to keep up with the mushrooming growth in illicit
indoor marijuana cultivation.

The study, conducted by the University College of the Fraser Valley and the
International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy at
the University of B.C., shows Delta experienced a 1,293 per cent increase
in the number of indoor marijuana grow operations investigated by police
from 1997 to 2000 - the highest increase of 10 B.C. jurisdictions with the
largest volume of pot grow files.

The study cites a figure of 209 marijuana cultivation police investigations
in Delta in 2000.

Delta Police Const. Ron Gerbrandt said the figures reflect the results of
an increased police crackdown on the problem.

"(It's) because we went out looking for them (grow ops) and found them,"
Gerbrandt said.

Surrey ranked fifth, with a comparatively modest 257 per cent increase,
after Delta, Coquitlam, Burnaby, Vancouver and Richmond.

When the figures are adjusted to reflect population sizes, Delta ranks
fifth among the B.C. communities with the biggest grow op increases, while
Surrey ranks 10th.

Overall, the study found the number of grow ops is increasing by an average
of 36 per cent a year in B.C., outpacing police efforts to close them down.

Surrey RCMP spokesman Const. Tim Shields said drug investigators are
struggling to cope with the increase.

"They (grow ops) are an epidemic and have grown exponentially over the last
five years and have outpaced the police ability to handle them," Shields said.

"They are very lucrative, (and) the growers make more money than they face
in fines."

The study, which reviewed more than 11,000 police files in nearly every
B.C. community, shows that the "typical" cultivator is a Caucasian male, 35
years old, with seven prior criminal convictions.

However, an increasing number of grow ops are being run by Vietnamese
criminal organizations, accounting for roughly one in three grow ops files
investigated by police in 2000.

Only about 18 per cent of those convicted for marijuana cultivation went to
jail, and then only for an average of 4.5 months, the study found.

B.C. Solicitor-General Rich Coleman says because B.C. imposes lighter
penalties than Washington state courts do, this province has become little
more than "a welcoming place" for pot growers.

"We have people who think they can operate with impunity in our
jurisdiction," Coleman said.

"This province is too soft on drugs, and we have to get tougher."

Convicted pot growers can in fact be jailed up to seven years under
Canadian laws, Coleman says, but it's up to community residents to persuade
B.C. judges to impose maximum sentences.

"The penalties are there," Coleman said.

"It's up to the courts to apply the penalties."

He also called for more court action to seize the assets of convicted pot
growers, and for faster approval of police requests for grow op search warrants.