cannabisnews.com: Feds Too Soft on Drugs: Cops





Feds Too Soft on Drugs: Cops
Posted by CN Staff on November 27, 2002 at 07:33:45 PT
By David Gamble, Sun Ottawa Bureau
Source: Toronto Sun 
Ottawa -- Criminals are getting off too easy as neighbourhoods across Canada are endangered by huge secret pot-growing operations, police groups charged yesterday. The Liberal government's possible decriminalization of marijuana will only make things worse, charged David Griffin, executive director of the Canadian Police Association.
Griffin and others called on the federal government to beef up the Criminal Code and impose minimum jail time for those convicted of turning 50,000 Canadian homes into marijuana "grow houses," including what he said were an estimated 10,000 in the Toronto area.  'WALKING AWAY' The operations, which can generate up to $500,000 a year a house, are mainly controlled by crime gangs. Much of the marijuana is smuggled into the United States. "We'd like to see some minimum sentences to give judges direction that this is a serious crime," Griffin said. "In B.C. (these offenders) are literally walking away." If Justice Minister Martin Cauchon actually decriminalizes pot, that would further dilute the seriousness of the offence of running a grow house, Griffin argued. The calls for action came just days after a series of police raids across Canada -- code-named Operation Greensweep 3 -- netted more than 73,000 plants valued at $73 million. Grow houses are fire hazards because of heavy lighting, which uses an average of $1,500 a month in electricity stolen from local utilities by bypassing meters. They are also filled with chemical fumes and mould. "It's quite discouraging for law enforcement when we are seeing conditional sentences and even fines," said Sgt. Mike Laviolette, an Ottawa police officer seconded to the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada. Det. Mike Klimm of York Regional Police said sentences for possession for the purpose of trafficking and production of a controlled substance run between seven and 15 years in the United States. "Up until recently, in Ontario we were getting conditional sentences like house arrest. We're now starting to see real jail terms from nine months to a year for first offence. They're starting to understand. The judiciary is listening," Klimm said. Note: Stiff minimum sentences urged for growers.Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)Author: David Gamble, Sun Ottawa BureauPublished: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Canoe Limited PartnershipContact: editor sunpub.comWebsite: http://www.fyitoronto.com/torsun.shtmlRelated Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmHigh Times for Grow Ops Despite Busts http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14840.shtmlPolice Target Home Marijuana Grows in Blitzhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12701.shtmlNationwide Drug Busts Weed Out $50M in Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11887.shtml 
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Comment #6 posted by Binky on November 27, 2002 at 14:13:33 PT
How Many Are?
(snip)Griffin and others called on the federal government to beef up the Criminal Code and impose minimum jail time for those convicted of turning 50,000 Canadian homes into marijuana "grow houses," including what he said were an estimated 10,000 in the Toronto area. And just how many of these homes are of the regular variety mom & pop operations, or how many are legal med users.
I use to think that decrim was a start but now I'm for total legalization.
Looks like the race is on to see who can fill up our jails the fastest.
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Comment #5 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on November 27, 2002 at 10:30:20 PT
LTE
Sirs,  David Griffin is correct that the current problem of illegal marijuana grow operations would only get worse if the Canadian government were to merely relax the penalties for personal consumption. However, no amount of money or resources could possibly help the police close the final illegal grow operation. The only way to do that is the same way we ended the reign of the speakeasy - to remove the business from the hands of criminals and turn it over to legally regulated tax-paying corporations.  The only grow operation which wasn't considered a risk and a threat to its neighbors was the single legal operation, the one run by the government in Flin Flon, Manitoba. Marijuana plants are not inherently dangerous - the danger comes with illegal growers stealing electricity and protecting their crop. The Flin Flon crop was overseen by licenced electricians who paid for their own power - why don't we allow other grow operations be run the same way? And if the prohibition of marijuana were to come to an end, would we need to use all this electricity to grow indoors in the first place?
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Comment #4 posted by afterburner on November 27, 2002 at 10:12:50 PT:
'We don't make the laws: we only enforce them.'
O, really!?David Griffin, isn't he the executive director of the Canadian Police Association, who condemned the Nolin Canadian Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs Report Cannabis: Our Position for a Canadian Public Policy ( http://www.parl.gc.ca/illegal-drugs.asp ) before the "ink" was hardly dry as a "back-to-school gift for drug-pushers"? Let me see, YES he is.CN SN: PUB LTE: Senate Report Hardly Astonishing http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1713/a04.html?1363CN SN: Editorial: Senate Pot Ideas Worth Adopting http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1674/a01.html?1363CN ON: PUB LTE: Illegal Drug Committee's Conclusions http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n2043/a07.html?1368btw: Illegal grow houses can be eliminated by ending prohibition and the resulting high prices that attract criminals, and legalizing and regulating and taxing cannabis. ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question. To cage or heal?
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Comment #3 posted by delariand on November 27, 2002 at 09:24:59 PT
Where's Operation Terrorsweep? 
Couldn't the money that's funding this operation be put to use catching real criminals?
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Comment #2 posted by mayan on November 27, 2002 at 09:09:02 PT
Operation Greensweep 192
"I think we're winning. There can't be that many grow-ops left."Hee-Hee!
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Comment #1 posted by knox42897 on November 27, 2002 at 08:00:41 PT:
Discouraged and a DISGRACE
"It's quite discouraging for law enforcement when we are seeing conditional sentences and even fines," said Sgt. Mike Laviolette, an Ottawa police officer seconded to the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada. Operation Greensweep 3 How much more discouraged do you have to be in order to stop? Greensweep 4 or 5? I think they are still more discouraged to go after murder's, rapists and thieves.
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