Pubdate: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 Source: Eagle Valley News (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 Sicamous Eagle Valley News Contact: http://www.eaglevalleynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4362 Author: Tom Fletcher Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) PROVINCE LOSING THE WAR ON DRUGS VICTORIA - There's one area of B.C. business investment that's seen a boom in rural areas. Unfortunately, it's organized crime. You may have heard the saga of Likely, a tiny community east of Williams Lake. Last fall RCMP confirmed results of a two-year investigation that found eight properties with buildings fitted for large-scale marijuana growing. At least one of those has been seized under civil forfeiture legislation, a powerful new tool in targeting proceeds of crime. Nine Lower Mainland residents were charged. Are there more Likelys out there? No doubt the gangs learned about the hazards of creating a cluster in one place. Just before New Year's Day, police used snowmobiles to raid a property near Clearwater. They described it as a machine shed with industrial-style wiring that appeared to have been built for a grow-op. Further north, Houston RCMP resorted to using their holding cells to store masses of seized hydroponic equipment. The problem goes beyond marijuana, a relatively benign drug. The popularity of "B.C. bud" has led to many new players in the cocaine trade. Even small local groups tend to have ties to bikers in southern B.C. who have developed lucrative bud-for-blow arrangements reaching down to South America. And when bullets fly in B.C. communities, there are generally hard drugs, often cocaine, involved. Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis spearheaded a new approach that targets safety hazards of bad wiring and high electricity consumption. In 2006 the B.C. government passed legislation allowing municipalities to obtain hydro records showing high-consumption, then inspect those properties. The approach has been adopted in some Lower Mainland communities. Recent hydro records show a 20 per cent drop in high-consumption properties around the Lower Mainland. Now Garis fears the problem has simply been displaced to more remote sites. Gangs adapt quickly. Small towns have few police resources, and can't afford electrical inspection teams on their own. Garis points to a recent survey of hydroponic equipment stores that found more than 80 in all regions of B.C., compared to 13 in Alberta and nine in Washington state. Police, firefighters and business groups supported a resolution at a recent municipal convention, calling on the B.C. government to require an electrical permit for buyers of high-powered lights and hydroponic gear. So far the government is non-commital. I asked Solicitor General John van Dongen why. He said his priority lately has been finding ways to regulate another illicit trade, metal theft. He's also concerned about restricting legitimate hydroponic farming. Garis says other provinces are acting. In 2006 Manitoba agreed to pay for electrical inspections, instead of leaving it to communities that can't afford it, as B.C. is doing. "We're a world crime superpower predicated on marijuana," a frustrated Garis told me. "Eighty per cent of what we're growing here is being distributed corporately to other provinces, the United States and elsewhere. "We've made a booming business out of it because we're resting on our laurels, saying, oh, we don't want to regulate, and yet this thing just spirals out of control. It's ridiculous." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin