ENFORCEMENT PAYS OFF FOR POMO

Port Moody's crackdown on marijuana grow operations two years ago put
a dent in the city's pot production, police say.

"We still have a few of them around," said PMPD Const. Brian
Morwood-Clark, who is in charge of the grow op files in the city. "You
can tell which ones they are because they have no snow on their roofs.
But, clearly, we sent a signal out in 2003 with enforcement and it
seems to have paid off for the city."

That year, PMPD launched a high-profile sting on some 20 pot farms,
many of them operating in expensive homes on Heritage Mountain and
allegedly run by a Vietnamese drug ring.

With a bylaw adopted the year before, the first in the Tri-Cities, the city
started billing the homeowner for the police clean-up costs. And it had an
impact.

This year, PMPD dismantled only four pot farms and charged out $19,370
for its officers' time, said Jim Weber, PoMo's manager of building,
bylaws and licensing.

"If we do get any tips, we're pretty diligent in following them up,"
said PMPD spokesperson Const. Phil Reid. Still, he said, "We haven't
had many."

Mounties Busy

It's a different story in Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam, where police
and city officials are run off their feet keeping up with the number
of reported grow ops.

Since 1998, Coquitlam RCMP has seen a 347% increase in indoor pot farm
complaints in Coquitlam and a 285% jump in PoCo. Drug investigators
believe there are more than 300 grow operations currently in the two
cities.

This year alone, Coquitlam RCMP's six-member Marijuana Enforcement
Team, which was formed in September 2004, seized plants at 89 homes
between January and November ?" an average of two busts a week.

Coquitlam, which adopted its Noxious or Offensive Business Activity
bylaw last year, opened 104 files this year on grow ops, billing out a
total of $193,044 for police clean-up costs and city inspections and
permits. Of those files, 33 homeowners have had their occupancy
permits returned, said city spokesperson Therese Mickelson.

The city of Port Coquitlam, which toughened up its anti-grow op bylaw
in May to include penalties against the homeowner for any city, police
and fire employee on site while a grow op is dismantled, opened 21
files this year. The city billed out $108,453, including $60,994 to
clean up a meth lab discovered at a townhouse on Shaughnessy Street,
said Brian North, PoCo's manager of revenue and collections.

Impacts Outlined

Home-based pot farms have become so common that federal prosecutors
are now presenting a "Marijuana Impact Statement", tailor-made for
Coquitlam and PoCo, when dealing with a charged cultivator in court.

According to the statement, which The Tri-City News obtained this
month and which is available for viewing in full at
http://www.tricitynews.com, Pot grown locally is often exported to the
United States, specifically Seattle and Los Angeles, where it is sold for
double its Canadian value.

"Profits made from the sale of marijuana are often used by organized
crime groups to finance other criminal activity," the report states,
citing the manufacture of methamphetamine and ecstasy, and the
importing of cocaine.

But Kirk Tousaw, legal counsel and spokesperson for the BC Marijuana
Party, said B.C. bud only makes up a small percentage of pot going
across the border. About 30% is imported to the U.S. from Mexico and
the rest is domestically grown, he said.

Whatcom County is one of the top areas for pot production, Tousaw
said. "It's sort of infuriating to hear this idea of a crackdown is
going to somehow get rid of the marijuana situation in Canada," he
said. "It hasn't worked in the United States, that's for sure."