Pubdate: Sat, 12 Mar 2005 Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC) Copyright: 2005 The Vancouver Sun Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) TOUGHER LAWS AND STRICTER ENFORCEMENT NEEDED TO STOP GROW-OPS There has been remarkable agreement this week among law enforcement officers and law-makers in the provincial and federal governments about the gravity of the problem of marijuana-growing operations in Canada. Federal Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan called grow-ops "one of the single biggest problems we face in our communities ... a serious threat to public safety." British Columbia Solicitor General Rich Coleman, who is responsible for policing in the province, demanded that the feds "wake up" and enact stiffer penalties for marijuana growers. RCMP Commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli said they are "major, serious threats to our society." But a report obtained by The Vancouver Sun this week shows that their actions over the past several years have not matched the strong words issued in the wake of the tragic death of four RCMP officers in Alberta. Despite a tripling of growing operations discovered by or reported to police between 1997 and 2003, fewer suspects are being apprehended, fewer charges are being laid, fewer yet are approved by prosecutors and growers who do get hauled off to court can expect more lenient sentences. In some jurisdictions, according to the report's author, Darryl Plecas, a criminologist at University College of the Fraser Valley, police have all but given up on trying to put marijuana growers behind bars. Our editorials have argued over the past several days for a new approach to the regulation of marijuana. But anything short of legalization, which could be years away, leaves us with the necessity of tackling what everybody recognizes as the scourge of the criminal cultivation and trafficking of marijuana. It now seems clear that the deaths of the RCMP officers in Alberta were only minimally connected to the growing of marijuana. But they are a reminder that marijuana cultivation is carried out in a criminal context. The report obtained by The Sun, which looked at every report of marijuana cultivation handled by police in B.C., found that 41 per cent of suspects identified in connection with grow-ops had a previous conviction for a violent offence. We must get serious about treating these operations as the menace that they are. That means first getting all of the actors -- the police, the courts and the politicians -- on the same page instead of squabbling about who is to blame for the current crisis. The statistics show that police, despite the way they describe grow-ops, are not putting as much effort into shutting them down and punishing operators as they used to. This might be in part because of the way courts have dealt with the cases brought before them. The number of cases resulting in prison sentences fell from 19 per cent to 10 per cent between 1997 and 2003, while the number of conditional sentences increased threefold. Carol Baird Ellan, the chief judge of the B.C. Provincial Court, said earlier this week that if police and politicians are unhappy with the sentences being handed down, they should change the law. Changes made to the Criminal Code in 1996 and later rulings by the Supreme Court of Canada dictate that imprisonment should be a last resort. Her arguments put the ball back in Ottawa's court on the issue of whether the courts are too lenient. McLellan has said the feds are willing to consider stiffer sentences and there is little doubt there would be strong public support for such a move. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth