HEAT TURNED UP ON POT GROWERS

Kelowna RCMP's crackdown on marijuana grow ops in March results in 24
arrests and seizure of 32 kgs of pot and 6,000 plants.

Area police forces say a March-long blitz of marijuana grow-ops show raids
are a necessary use of police resources to protect their communities.

Local forces combined this month to search 21 homes and clean out illegal
hydroponic marijuana crops in 20 of them.

They scooped 32 kgs of dried pot and 6,000 more plants before they hit the
streets and arrested 24 people.

While scoring a joint may be a little more difficult and a little more
expensive for awhile, police are also quick to say they may have barely
made a dent in local production.

Kelowna RCMP Const. Garth Letcher said they hope to find more of them in
coming days.

"We have lots of information to be acted upon," he said. "We are not going
to hold out a specific date that it will all come to an end.

"If we can make a few folks nervous out there then that's fine."

Letcher wouldn't comment on the on-going debate about decriminalization of
pot and whether police resources would be better spent elsewhere.

For example, the investigators in this month's blitz were catching up on
tips they received while working on a B.C.- and Alberta-wide investigation
into highly volatile and dangerous methamphetamine labs.

Letcher said meth labs are certainly more dangerous, but that evidence from
their busts is proof that the home gardeners are just part of a bigger picture.

During their raids, police seized two stolen vehicles and a stolen snowmobile.

"What we are dealing with here are clearly criminal enterprises that
compromise the safety of our neighbourhoods," he said.

The raids were conducted by 10 officers from Lake Country, Southeast
District Drug Section, Kelowna and rural RCMP working co-operatively in all
areas.

A number of the targets were discovered through Crime Stoppers tips,
Letcher said.