Pubdate: Sat, 05 Mar 2005
Source: Windsor Star (CN ON)
Copyright: The Windsor Star 2005
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/501
Author: Andrew Duffy, CanWest News Service
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Rochfort+Bridge (Rochfort Bridge)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

GROW OPS RISKIER TO TAKE OUT

Officer Says Judges Soft on Expanding Criminal Activity

OTTAWA - Police officers are routinely risking their lives to shut down 
marijuana grow-ops while judges and politicians dismiss the dangers posed 
by the expanding criminal enterprise, says Detective Staff Sgt. Rick Barnum 
of the Ontario Provincial Police's drug squad.

Barnum said he was sickened by news that four RCMP officers had been killed 
Thursday during a raid on an Alberta grow operation, but added he wasn't 
surprised, "We haven't predicted something this horrific, but we've 
predicted death, injury, significant damage," said Barnum, who has 
investigated marijuana grow operations full time for the past two years.

In making appeals for help to politicians, police boards and power company 
officials, Barnum's message has been the same: "These are million-dollar 
criminal operations that growers will protect."

In most cases, drug squad officers do not know who or what they'll confront 
during a raid since marijuana growers tend to use rental properties that 
shield their identities. It means, that each search warrant must be 
executed with extreme caution since most grow-ops are backed by organized 
crime, Barnum said.

"There's fear of the known and there's fear of the unknown. With grow-ops, 
it's fear of the unknown that's greater," he said.

The basic strategy, he said, is to go into a building quickly and take 
everyone inside down to the floor.

That strategy, however, has recently been complicated by courts that have 
tossed out cases in which the police raided growers without first knocking 
on their door.

"Judges have felt that by us breaking down the door or doing a quick entry 
into a house, we've breached the person's rights inside growing marijuana 
and thrown out those charges," he said.

"The courts now demand that we knock before entering a grow house. They 
expect you to go stand on the front porch like a sitting duck."

Staff Sgt. Marc Pinault, head of the Ottawa Police Service's drug unit, 
said it's impossible to predict what officers will confront so they must 
rely on their experience to make instant decisions about what level of 
force to use.

"The risk is always there, every day for our guys," said Pinault. "When we 
go to these grow-ops, we see high powered rifles, shotguns and machetes. 
We've picked up dynamite at grow-ops."

What's more, police enforcement efforts are often undercut by lenient 
sentences for marijuana growers, he added.

"The sentencing we see is just not cutting it," he said. "I've seen a guy 
with a 300 or 400 plant grow -- which will probably make him about $1 
million a year -- get 18 months probation." 
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