POT DEBACLE UNEARTHED

A bungled scavenger hunt, that targeted a massive stash of high-grade pot
buried at Orillia's landfill, has the city's mayor looking to clear the smoke.

"We will have to clarify how we are handling this and the security measures
around (the landfill)," Ron Stevens said. "We will certainly look at it."
Provincial drug-enforcement officers last week uprooted a six-acre field of
marijuana from a private property, west of Gamebridge. Police told
reporters that the unprecedented crop - valued at $20 million - would be
destroyed at an undisclosed location.

As was later discovered by several enterprising individuals, that location
was Orillia's Waste Diversion Site, situated at the end of Kitchener Street.

A caravan of cube vans carted the prohibited plants to the property, where
they were mulched, mixed with other compostables, deposited in a large
hole, and covered with earth. Six people scaled an eight-foot fence early
Monday, in search of the contraband loot.

Tipped off to the dig through a call to Crime Stoppers, police nabbed the
suspects, who were busy unearthing the soiled pot. They are facing several
charges, including possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.

Said Const. Tim Ticknor: "It was more of a sludge. You would have to be
pretty desperate."

The sheer volume of marijuana that had to be destroyed made incineration an
unlikely possibility, added Ticknor. He noted that Health and Welfare
Canada does allow for the burial of marijuana.

"They want us to use the most expedient method. For such a large quantity,
this was the way to do it."

From the city's perspective, questions remain. Stevens wouldn't rule
anything out when asked if he thought the presence of illegal drugs at
Orillia's landfill could put staff there in jeopardy. "Certainly that is a
possibility," said Stevens. "But it is fairly well secured. Obviously these
individuals didn't see a problem in that."

As for alternatives? "I don't know, do you try burning it and put all of
Simcoe County on a high?" he added.

The men charged in the drug bust, Kam Yao, 35, Yun Ming Tin, 39, and Fen
Zhuo Xie, 41, were released on $270,000 bail this week. The suspects'
lawyer, Ed Hung, said his clients are hard-working family men, and there is
no evidence they were producing pot.