Pubdate: Fri, 18 Mar 2005
Source: Chilliwack Progress (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Chilliwack Progress
Contact:  http://www.theprogress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/562
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Cited: http://www.ucfv.ca/pages/Special/Marihuana_Grow_Ops_in_BC_Study.pdf 
(Study)
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n460/a10.html?22914

IT'S ABOUT THE MONEY

News that British Columbia's indoor pot business is still flourishing is a 
message to some that it's time to give up the fight over marijuana grow 
operations.

They claim it's a battle that can never be won; that simple surrender is 
the only option.

That's a naive suggestion.

It's naive because it is based on the assumption that the powers that drive 
the multi-billion dollar illegal marijuana trade will simply go away if the 
drug were legalized.

Last week a study done by the University College of the Fraser Valley 
showed indoor marijuana grow operations were still doing a thriving 
business. This despite the fact that communities like Chilliwack have 
developed tough new strategies to combat the problem. Indeed, the study 
found that Chilliwack has more grow-ops per capita than any community in 
British Columbia. (Pot biz growing in Chilliwack, Progress March 15.)

 From 1997 to 2003, the study found, cases in Chilliwack grew 214 per cent.

Granted, the study's findings were compiled before the city introduced its 
new municipal regulations that can impose a $10,000 fine on property owners 
caught with a grow-op on their premises. But UCFV criminology professor 
Darryl Plecas, main author of the report, doubts the bylaw will have much 
impact. When a single crop of marijuana can reap $300,000, he says, a 
$10,000 fine will not provide much of a deterrent.

Nonetheless, giving up the fight is not an option. It is simplistic to 
assume that legalization of marijuana will end the proliferation of indoor 
grow operations. Most of the product produced in British Columbia's $6 
billion marijuana trade heads south, where it's sold, or exchanged for 
drugs like cocaine. This lucrative commerce is driven by organized crime, 
and organized crime is driven by money. The fact that the recreational pot 
smoker might be able to pick up a joint one day at a corner store won't end 
this lucrative export production.

What it would do is effectively close the borders with our largest trading 
partner. If border crossings have become difficult in this post-9/11 world, 
imagine what they would be like if Canada legalized a drug that most 
Americans believe is dangerous.

Instead, Canada has to look at its own laws. The courts have to see that 
large-scale marijuana operations are the thin edge of an organized crime 
wedge. Although usually run by low-level operatives, grow-ops are the money 
end of operations that feed other illegal activities in our communities.

As Darryl Plecas told The Progress, "The only thing that's going to turn 
this around is more active types of (court) sentences," he said. "We don't 
want to lose our compassion and understanding at some point for growers, 
but we've got to stop being stupid about it and recognize it's an economic 
crime with major connections to organized crime."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom