Pubdate: Thu, 28 Jun 2007
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Province
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: Stuart Hunter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

JUDGE WISHES HE COULD HAVE JAILED MAN OVER GROW-OP

Law Should Provide A Deterrent, He Says

A West Vancouver man has been handed a conditional sentence with 
house arrest for his role in a 362-plant marijuana grow-op.

Provincial Court Judge Doug Moss said he'd have liked to have sent 
Warren William Spencer, 24, to jail, but legal precedents prevented 
him from doing so.

Spencer, who pleaded guilty, was given a 12-month conditional 
sentence and 12 months of probation.

"No community in the province of British Columbia is immune from the 
curse of the grow-operation," Moss wrote in his June 13 judgment.

"To date, the imposition of conditional jail sentences and fines, and 
even house forfeiture, have not served in any real way to deter 
generally people of like mind to Mr. Spencer from involving 
themselves in this illegal activity."

A house in the 1400-block Palmerston Avenue, rented by labourer 
Spencer, was raided by West Vancouver police on Sept. 13, 2005. 
Officers seized growing equipment -- and the 362 pot plants -- which 
they said was capable of producing 31 kilograms of weed with a street 
value of up to $170,000.

After his arrest, Spencer said greed wasn't his motivation. He said 
he was out to satisfy his and his friends' need for weed -- a claim 
Moss said "obviously must be taken with a grain of salt."

Moss said the problem of sentencing is a difficult one. "One of the 
problems facing provincial courts in particular is how best to 
address the growing problem, pardon the pun, of sentencing those 
convicted of cultivation of marijuana," Moss wrote.

"The number of such cases appears to be growing rapidly in North/West 
Vancouver and all communities in British Columbia, regardless of the 
use of conditional jail sentences and fines. Actual jail is rapidly 
becoming a more realistic penalty if the conduct is to be deterred.

"As a judge who deals daily with such offences, I support 
Parliament's intention as reflected in the Criminal Code to send 
fewer people to jail for first offences in particular. There are some 
kind of criminal offences, however, which would seem well suited to 
the general effect of deterrence through actual jail sentences."

Department of Justice officials didn't return calls.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman