Pot times
Pot Raids Draining Resources, Police Say
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1105/a03.htmlNewshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Pubdate: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 POT RAIDS DRAINING RESOURCES, POLICE SAY
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2005, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:
letters@globeandmail.ca
Website: http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Jeff Gray
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm
(Cannabis - Canada)
Toronto Police say they are taking down more marijuana grow operations this year
than ever before, but Chief Bill Blair warns that the exploding number of pot
busts is draining resources.
"I don't think we are satisfactorily on top of it," Chief Blair said
yesterday after a Police Services Board meeting. "We know that it's a
problem that continues to grow."
According to a report presented to the board yesterday, police broke up 169 grow
operations this year as of June 1. The tally represents an 18-per-cent
increase over the same period in 2004.
Earlier this year, former chief Julian Fantino had requested funding for a
multimillion-dollar grow-op task force.
The plan included a shopping list for high-tech equipment, such as an additional
$40,000 infrared device to detect the excessive heat grow-ops give off.
But that plan went nowhere, given the city's financial constraints.
Instead, the police went ahead with a 15-member ad-hoc marijuana squad -- called
Project Growstop -- using drug squad investigators and police from the divisions
in suburban northern Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke, and existing staff
and equipment.
And while they have had some success, it has come at a cost. Arrests for
other drug offences have plummeted, sinking 77 per cent in the city's east end
and 20 per cent in the west end because drug squad officers were reassigned to
the grow-op squad, the police report says.
Chief Blair said he is in talks with federal and provincial officials about how
to combat the problem.
