POT FOUND GROWING ON RIVERVIEW HOSPITAL SITE

COQUITLAM - Riverview Hospital has always had drugs to mellow out mental
patients. But not this kind.

On Saturday morning, Coquitlam RCMP seized 500 marijuana plants and
equipment from the "Crease Unit," a building no longer used by the
hospital. Const. Jeff Levine said the growing operation, which was
discovered in an attic by a security guard, appears to have been
professionally run and was hooked up to a power plant on the Riverview site.

Police said the marijuana had been in the hospital building for at least
three months. Whoever maintained the plants would have had to go through
four locked doors and sneak past 24-hour security patrols regularly, said
Levine.

The operation included large, expensive industrial equipment that would
have taken several people to move, he added. Movie crews have had access to
the building and a number of people may have had keys, said Levine. Rented
out by the B.C. Building Corporation, the building is not far from the
quarters of about 500 mental patients.