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Mountie Wants Parents Punished For Raising Children In
Pubdate: Sun, 11 Sep 2005
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Province
Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476
Author: John Bermingham
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
MOUNTIE WANTS PARENTS PUNISHED FOR RAISING CHILDREN IN A GROW-OP
B.C.'s top "grow-op cop" said the courts should hand out longer jail
sentences to parents who raise their kids in marijuana drug houses.
Insp. Paul Nadeau, who heads the RCMP Co-ordinated Marijuana Enforcement
Team, said keeping kids in a grow-op should lead to stiffer sentences for
adults involved.
"If we convict someone in a grow-op, and kids are in the house, whether
it's his kids or someone else's, that should be taken under consideration
by the judge who's sentencing," Nadeau said Friday.
His comments come days after two children were plucked from a grow-op in
Maple Ridge.
Nadeau said it should become an aggravating factor in sentencing, just like
having firearms or booby-traps on the premises.
Darryl Plecas, a criminologist at the University College of the Fraser
Valley who heads B.C.'s new Centre for Criminal Justice Research, agrees
that stiffer jail sentences would act as a deterrent to criminals.
"I'm amazed that the courts haven't taken an extremely strong stance," he
said. "I would really question the ability of somebody to be considered an
appropriate parent if they're placing their kids in that kind of situation.
"I don't see any harm whatever in taking their kids away."
On Thursday, members of the Ridge-Meadows RCMP Strike Force busted a
grow-op. They found four Vietnamese adults and two boys, aged nine and 11.
Police seized 386 plants and equipment.The boys were turned over to a
family member, and the Ministry of Children and Family Development is
investigating.
Mounties in B.C. get 5,000 reports of grow-op reports annually and bust
about 2,000, which stretches their resources to the limit.
Twenty per cent of the grow-ops busted by police have children living there.
B.C. Children's Ministry spokeswoman Kate Thompson said children's safety
is paramount. The child could be taken into care, placed with extended
family members or returned to the parents if it's safe enough.
"If the parents are released, the kids could be back with their parents
later the same day," she said.
"We are not seeing large numbers, so it's hard to say there's any kind of a
trend."
"Just because someone's been charged with a criminal offence, it doesn't
automatically mean their children will be removed from the home," she said.
"We have to act in the best interests of the children. Our issue is
protection."
Chris Taulu of the Collingwood Community Policing Centre in East Vancouver,
who made a video called Growing up in a Grow-op with the Vietnamese
community, said authorities are still studying the negative effects on kids.
Kids are breathing in dangerous black mould and chemicals and are at
much-higher risk of electrocution and sudden fire, he warned.
Taulu said she has problems with the ministry handing over a grow-op kid to
extended family members.
"The people you give [the child] to are also in grow-ops," she said. "In
many cases, the whole family is involved in it, so where on earth do you
take them?"
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