Pubdate: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 Source: Coquitlam Now, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2003Lower Mainland Publishing Group, Inc. Contact: http://www.thenownews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1340 Author: Ron Devitt Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/af.htm (Asset Forfeiture) CITIES WANT THEIR CUT ON GROW OPS Mayors from Port Moody and Coquitlam want a piece of the pie - the lucrative grow-op pie, which the federal and provincial government recently stuck their fingers in. A grow-op seized in a Surrey residence last week became the first home in B.C. to be turned over to the Crown, with both the federal and provincial government sharing the assets. Two weeks ago, Port Moody Police seized 864 pounds of marijuana with an estimated $1-million street value from six upscale homes on Heritage Mountain. Last week, Coquitlam RCMP raided a large commercial grow-op in a 3,300-square-foot home on Falcon Drive. RCMP seized 300 marijuana plants and grow-op equipment on two separate warrants. Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini and Coquitlam Mayor Jon Kingsbury are letting the federal and provincial governments know that cities carrying out the drug busts and seizures should be compensated with the seized property assets. "We figure we should have all of it," Kingsbury said of any property assets seized within a municipality. "There are big inequities coming out of our communities, and this is another inequity." He said one-third of Coquitlam's annual budget goes to pay for policing, in this case, the RCMP. Port Moody's annual budget is around $20 million, of which $4.5 million is spent on its municipal police force budget. Add fire and rescue services to the figure and it accounts for almost one-third of the entire budget. "We would like to recover the costs," Trasolini said. "What we're saying is allocate these funds where the costs have been incurred." And, Trasolini said, there is a lot of time and resources put into finding and busting grow-ops. "It's not a simple matter to take down a grow-op. And it goes to the courts, for what, a slap on the wrist?" he said. "I think you have to measure the investment Port Moody puts into that part of the law." Trasolini said the municipal level of government is the "forgotten level" of government. "We are at the mercy of the senior governments," Trasolini said. "We pay for policing, we pay for parks and recreation and street work and yet we are the level of government that is forgotten when issues like this are dealt with." Port Moody city council recently enacted a controlled substance property bylaw, allowing the city to bill property owners found with grow operations directly for any police costs associated with disassembly, removal, transportation, storage and disposal of grow equipment and drugs. Trasolini said the seizing of property assets is another weapon in the fight against drug cultivators. In 2001, a bill was passed allowing the Crown to seize all property used in committing a crime. Lyse Cantin, federal justice department B.C. region spokesperson, said the legislation was changed to allow for the seizure and forfeiture of real property found to be used in the commission of a crime. "So its given us a real avenue to deal with real property," Cantin said. "Certainly it opened new doors for the Crown when it comes to handling real property, to make it a lot easier to deal with the proceeds of crime." And, she said, it adds another weapon to the arsenal against illegal grow operations. "All these are parts of a multi-pronged attack on grow operations in the Lower Mainland," Cantin said. Under the legislation, property seized by work done by the provincial Crown goes to the province, while the federal government gets revenue from sales on cases it has worked. "It depends how much work each side did and who did what in each part of the investigation," Cantin said. She said if the municipalities are to get a share it will likely have to come from the province. "There's no room in there for changing that in the law," Cantin said. "It's locked in there. The provincial government, on the other hand, takes care of municipalities, so they could look at that." - --- MAP posted-by: Jackl