Pubdate: Sun, 03 Nov 2002
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2002, Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact:  http://www.fyiedmonton.com/htdocs/edmsun.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author: Shane Holladay
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

CANADA HIGH ON POT LIST

No. 3 Supplier to the U.S.

Canada trails only the corruption-riddled regimes of Mexico and Colombia as 
the top supplier of killer-quality weed to the U.S., says Ontario's Public 
Safety and Security Commissioner.

"That's not something to be proud of," Bob Runciman told The Sun. "We can 
see the United States wanting us to play a more active role in dealing with 
this."

Runciman - meeting with provincial and federal justice ministers in Calgary 
this week - plans to push for minimum sentences for pot house operators 
once he's there.

Police now cite "catch and release justice" as a key problem in the 
proliferation of marijuana-growing operations, Runciman said.

Edmonton's Sgt. Glen Hayden agreed.

"I've seen it for years," he said. "I was in the drug section until about 
eight months ago for eight years. I'm too familiar with it."

Edmonton's drug section busted somewhere between 60 and 90 growing 
operations in 2000 and 2001, sometimes raiding one home a week, Hayden 
said. Cops in Ontario estimate indoor marijuana growing is a $1-billion a 
year business there, the third-largest agricultural cash crop.

Operators usually rent houses, steal power and leave the place in shambles 
and a fire hazard, police said.

Offenders in the U.S. are usually handed stiff jail terms, but it's not 
unusual for convicted growers in Canada to get a conditional sentence or 
short jail term.

However, Hayden said he thinks changing the access local police departments 
have to the proceeds of crime they seize will do far more to curb growing 
operations than stiffer penalties.

Canada's proceeds-of-crime legislation was fashioned to prevent cops from 
targeting people because they're rich, Hayden said.

"But in the same vein, if he's rich and he's making all kinds of proceeds 
from drugs, why wouldn't we target him? Why wouldn't we use his resources 
to target someone else down the road? It's something we don't have when it 
comes to budget time."

Senator Tommy Banks - part of a Senate subcommittee that recently 
recommended criminal code exemptions for licensed growers of marijuana and 
simple possession - wants anyone illegally growing marijuana jailed and 
their assets seized.

"I'm talking about the big ones, the hydroponic ones where there are 
mass-producing," he said. "They should always be illegal when they're not 
properly licensed and properly regulated."

As for Canada's ranking as the third-largest supplier of quality weed, 
Banks said the situation is "horrible."

"The grow operations that I'm talking about, that I regard as criminal and 
whose stuff ought to be forfeited, are the ones that are for profit, that 
are for criminal activity."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Alexandra Meyerson