LASQUETI ISLAND A MARIJUANA-GROWING 'MECCA,' POLICE SAY

Lasqueti Island has become a marijuana "mecca" where residents conduct
business with pot instead of money, say Mounties newly determined to take
action.

On the weekend Mounties and federal drug enforcement officers busted an
indoor/outdoor grow operation with 800 plants on Lasqueti.

In a press release issued Monday, RCMP said Lasqueti has become known as a
"mecca for marijuana grow-ops" where locals admit to using marijuana
instead of cash to conduct business.

The amount of marijuana grown on the island far exceeds the needs of the
400 residents of Lasqueti, and the RCMP said it has intelligence suggesting
organized crime is involved.

But the RCMP Oceanside detachment in Parksville has a new commander and
complaints have been drawing new notice. The RCMP has called a town hall
meeting for Wednesday on Lasqueti.

Const. Beth Blackburn, RCMP drug awareness service, said the Mounties have
been, to some extent, ignoring Lasqueti. But that's changing.

"By our own admission we haven't paid enough attention to what is going on
over there," said Blackburn.

"It just seems every time we go there we have more and more and more," she
said. "Maybe it's time to pay a little more attention."

But longtime Lasqueti resident and admitted 40-year marijuana smoker
Laurence Fisher said this new approach by the Mounties is just a big joke.

Fisher said the bust on the weekend took helicopters from the RCMP and the
military. It even included a heavy-duty commercial chopper that looked
really stupid lifting off with a tiny bundle of pot plants dangling
underneath, he said.

But the wind wash from low-flying choppers was no joke. It smashed solar
panels and terrified children and animals.

And all this air power was for a tiny island where it's difficult to hide
anything, said Fisher, who fashions buttons and gifts for a living.

Fisher said the big-time marijuana grow ops are found in city houses.
Big-time outdoor operations are planted in logging slash.

"By their own admission they get way more marijuana from other places,"
said Fisher. "But Lasqueti gets in their radar every time they want a
little publicity," said Fisher.

"It's absolutely ludicrous, for God's sake," he said.