COPS, GROWERS SET FOR HARVEST

"When an owner goes into an apartment after the tenant's gone and he
finds a bulb like this, you figure something's going on."

Montreal apartment-block owner Daniel Germain is looking down at a
lightbulb that seems to be just slightly bigger than his head. The
piece of hardware suggests:

A) Someone was trying to read a version of War and Peace printed on a
grain of rice, or

B) Someone was running a marijuana greenhouse in the basement
31/2.

Since, as he speaks, Germain is sitting alongside representatives of
Montreal police, the Surete du Quebec and the province's Public
Security Department, those of you who chose "B" were right. But if you
think this much law-enforcement expertise got together in downtown
Montreal yesterday to detail how they were covering themselves with
glory in the war on drugs, you couldn't be more wrong.

Marijuana is this province's most-consumed illegal cash crop; a 2002
Statistics Canada survey indicated as many as 816,000 Quebecers toked
up.

The number of plants seized by police in this province also indicates
there's gold not only in Quebec's agricultural landscape (even though
the fields themselves are usually owned by a farmer who doesn't have a
clue those weeds alongside his crop wholesale for $120 an ounce), but
in its hydroponic labs, middle-of-nowhere fields and, with the
properly sized light bulbs, basements.

In fact, the 500,000 plants police seize in Quebec annually make us
the national leader when it comes to uprooting the drug problem.
British Columbia comes in second with 460,000 plants, while Ontario
barely blipped on the radar with 232,000.

Farmer's fields might get the most publicity when it comes to illegal
grow operations, but that's only because they're closer to where we
live. About half the investigations launched by the SQ focused on
wooded public land, usually off the beaten path (but not, apparently,
away from the provincial force's aerial surveillance cameras).

The police provided this information to reporters because September
can be referred to as Marijuana Harvesting Month in Quebec, where the
flower tops are as high as an elephant's eye and the number of daily
recorded plantation seizures leaps to 20 from the dozen or so
registered during the summer months.

The cops felt a technical briefing was in order "because some of you
will be writing about this a lot," said Clement Robitaille of the
Public Security Department. But Robitaille added they wanted to make
it clear the issue of decriminalization was one for legislators, not
police officers.

The nebulousness of the laws that are on the books (and over how long
they'll stay there) isn't making things easier, however. Gilles Drolet
of the SQ noted possessing marijuana seeds is legal "only if the seeds
are sterile." However, he added somewhat dryly, the only way to find
that out would be to plant them.

The fact the federal government has exhibited the decision-making
skills of a squirrel crossing an autoroute when it comes to marijuana
legislation hasn't helped matters. Bill C-10, which would have turned
simple possession into the equivalent of a traffic ticket, died on the
floor of the House of Commons when the federal election was called
last spring - which means possession of any kind is as illegal as it's
ever been.

In the meantime, however, demand for dope remains strong. The
moneymaking opportunity leads unqualified entrepreneurs to set
themselves on fire while trying to distill hashish oil from the
cannabis plant.

And there is the Boucherville experience four years ago, when
entrepreneurs blew themselves and the split-level home in which they
were working sky-high.

Which also means we'll be writing about this a lot.