COPS TAKE 4.8M JOINTS OUT OF CIRCULATION

KAMLOOPS -- Nearly 20,000 marijuana plants being grown on Crown land
were uprooted in the B.C. Interior after 10 RCMP detachments teamed
up to search and destroy outdoor grow-ops.

Clearwater RCMP Cpl. Mike Savage said the plants could have produced
more than 4.8 million joints "that would have ended up in our streets
and into the hands of our children."

An additional 36 kilograms of dried and harvested bud were
"eradicated," he said.

Some of the grow-op sites were so remote police had to be transported
by helicopter, where the plants were cut down and moved to disposal
sites, said Savage. Police also used ATVs and four-wheel drives.

Officers from Ashcroft, Barriere, Chase, Clearwater, Kamloops,
Lillooet, Lytton and Salmon Arm began the project in early August and
finished in late September.

Charges against three people are pending in one case.

Savage said marijuana cultivation in B.C. is a $6-billion-a-year
industry. The industry is usually linked to organized crime, he said.