GoldChico
New Member
Toronto Police have stepped up their war on marijuana grow houses in Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke this year, shutting down 18 per cent more of the operations than last year.
But according to a report from Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, delivered to the police services board this week, the effort is barely making a dent in the lucrative drug trade in suburban neighbourhoods, and is hurting the service's ability to deal with street level drug crime.
The report says that while 169 grow operations have so far been dismantled this year through Project Growstop, street level drug enforcement has decreased by 77 per cent in the east end and 20 per cent in the west end.
Ultimately, Blair said, police can only do so much to stop grow houses from proliferating unless the courts start handing down stiffer penalties to those convicted of running the illegal operations.
"The sentences passed down for this type of activity 60 miles south of us ( in the United States ) are significantly more severe than they are in this country," Blair said.
Tighten UP Legislation
He said police services around the GTA are talking with other levels of government to find ways to tighten up legislation to combat the grow-ops. And the Toronto drug squad has formed a joint partnership with the RCMP and York Regional Police to investigate organized crime's involvement in the operations.
Staff Insp. Dan Hayes, who heads the Toronto Police Service's Drug Squad, said that one of the biggest problems that police are having is the hands-off approach that many landlords take when it comes to accepting responsibility for the activities of their tenants.
"The landlords often hide behind a veil of ignorance - they throw their hands up and say 'I don't know what's happening on my property'," Hayes said. "We would like landlords to be more diligent in ensuring that they do know what happens on their property, but that requires a legislative change."
More police officers would also help.
"I don't think we're satisfactorily on top of it now," Blair said. "We know it's a problem that continues to grow and represents a threat to public safety. We believe that working together we can be more effective in our response and find ways that we can get additional resources."
Source: North York Mirror (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005 North York Mirror
Contact: nym@mirror-guardian.com
Website: https://www.insidetoronto.ca/to/northy/
But according to a report from Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, delivered to the police services board this week, the effort is barely making a dent in the lucrative drug trade in suburban neighbourhoods, and is hurting the service's ability to deal with street level drug crime.
The report says that while 169 grow operations have so far been dismantled this year through Project Growstop, street level drug enforcement has decreased by 77 per cent in the east end and 20 per cent in the west end.
Ultimately, Blair said, police can only do so much to stop grow houses from proliferating unless the courts start handing down stiffer penalties to those convicted of running the illegal operations.
"The sentences passed down for this type of activity 60 miles south of us ( in the United States ) are significantly more severe than they are in this country," Blair said.
Tighten UP Legislation
He said police services around the GTA are talking with other levels of government to find ways to tighten up legislation to combat the grow-ops. And the Toronto drug squad has formed a joint partnership with the RCMP and York Regional Police to investigate organized crime's involvement in the operations.
Staff Insp. Dan Hayes, who heads the Toronto Police Service's Drug Squad, said that one of the biggest problems that police are having is the hands-off approach that many landlords take when it comes to accepting responsibility for the activities of their tenants.
"The landlords often hide behind a veil of ignorance - they throw their hands up and say 'I don't know what's happening on my property'," Hayes said. "We would like landlords to be more diligent in ensuring that they do know what happens on their property, but that requires a legislative change."
More police officers would also help.
"I don't think we're satisfactorily on top of it now," Blair said. "We know it's a problem that continues to grow and represents a threat to public safety. We believe that working together we can be more effective in our response and find ways that we can get additional resources."
Source: North York Mirror (CN ON)
Copyright: 2005 North York Mirror
Contact: nym@mirror-guardian.com
Website: https://www.insidetoronto.ca/to/northy/
