Pot times July 17, 2005

Surrey Judge Calls Grow-Op Problem 'Plague'

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1125/a02.html
Newshawk: Herb

Pubdate: Tue, 12 Jul 2005
Source: Peace Arch News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 Peace Arch News
Contact: editorial@peacearchnews.com
Website: http://www.peacearchnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1333
Author: Dan Ferguson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

SURREY JUDGE CALLS GROW-OP PROBLEM 'PLAGUE'

A Surrey judge who says the courts see far too many grow op cases slapped a jail term on a first-time offender who quit a well-paying job to set up a marijuana greenhouse in North Delta.

What was an epidemic has become a plague," Surrey Provincial Judge John Lenaghan wrote in his reasons for sentencing Vancouver resident Keith Gordon Wallis to 15 months in jail.  Wallis, 31, had no criminal record when Delta Police raided the grow op he was running inside a house in the 11000 block of 81A Avenue in February of 2003.  Wallis pleaded guilty to unlawful production of marijuana last year.

During sentencing, both his lawyer and the Crown prosecutor agreed Wallis should be given house arrest.  Lenaghan saw it differently.

In the Wallis case, the prevalence of this criminal activity...and the corrupting influence of this criminal activity" are aggravating factors, Lenaghan said.

The defendant had secure, well-paid employment and was the owner, with his parents, of the house in which the grow operation was discovered.

Instead of being satisfied with his comfortable circumstances, he chose to establish a large, sophisticated and expensive criminal enterprise."