IT'S HARVEST TIME FOR MARIJUANA GROWERS

Pot Plants Often Found Hidden in Cornfields

Ontario Provincial Police are gearing up for an annual harvest, and
it's looking like a bumper crop of illegal marijuana this summer.

Around mid-August each year, OPP do a sweep of Ontario's Western
Region - an area stretching from Tobermory in the north to Lake Erie
in the south, and east from Windsor to Guelph.

They're looking for pot plants growing in between rows of corn in
unsuspecting farmer's fields.

OPP Sgt. Dave Rektor said he expects this year's sweep to be a big
one.

"The weather conditions have been good. It's not very complicated to
grow marijuana; you just add water. It's a very hardy plant," he said.

Rektor said each August's harvest usually nets millions of dollars
worth of illegal plants.

In 2006 police seized $10.9 million of the sticky green plants, and
last year they snagged a whopping $15.8 million.

Rektor said he expects a similar haul this year.

Earlier this month, police seized 100 plants valued at $100,000 from a
cornfield West of Alma on Wellington Road.

"It happens right across the West Region and it's spreading to more
rural areas . . . the suspects are very innovative when it comes to
growing," said Rektor.

The plants are usually found four or five rows back from the highway
and near water.

Rektor said an abandoned car parked on the side of the road is often a
dead giveaway for a field of outdoor marijuana.

"Sometimes closer to the harvest season we'll check these cars and see
marijuana leaves poking out of the trunk," said Rektor.

He joked about the bumbling antics of would-be drug dealers, but
Rektor said grow-op fields can be dangerous for police.

"People planting it are very possessive over their property.
Oftentimes they'll leave booby traps for police, things like trip
wires for explosive devices or items with sharp edges," he said.

Given the potential danger of exploring a marijuana crop, Rektor said
it's best if people don't try to investigate the situation up close.

Instead, he urged farmers and passersby to report any suspicious
activity, including abandoned cars, bags of fertilizer or planting
trays in remote areas and strangers roaming fields at night with
flashlights or buckets.

Police helicopters monitor the fields from above throughout the
summer, but Rektor said the harvest wouldn't be successful without the
public's help.

"We nab a lot of people as a result of those tips," he
said.

"Usually when people report something suspicious, it turns out to be
suspicious. We usually find something."