IT'S HARVEST TIME FOR POLICE SQUADS

Cops hit marijuana plantations. Raids across province net 29,000
plants nearly ready to be marketed on the street

A bumper crop was harvested across Quebec yesterday but the product
will never find its way to market.

Throughout the day, police officers turned into field workers as they
tore up more than 29,000 marijuana plants in 71 locations across the
province. By last night, at least six people had been arrested in what
was dubbed Operation Shears.

Police said most of those arrested were guarding pot fields with
firearms. In one case, officers found three guard dogs protecting a
small plantation.

Seizures were made in several regions, including the Gaspe and Lac St.
Jean.

The objective was to get to the the plants before they could be picked
and the marijuana sold on the streets.

It has become an annual tradition for the Surete du Quebec and this
year's haul sounds impressive compared with that of 2002, when only
13,000 plants were collected.

"It is the peak time for the plants, so the marijuana producers are
preparing to harvest their product," said Lt. Jean Audette, the SQ's
specialist on drugs, on the timing of the operation.

In the four years since the SQ started targeting full-grown marijuana
fields, Audette said, the situation has evolved.

It started when real farmers complained they were being pressured,
even threatened, to grow marijuana hidden among their legal crops.

Through their union, the farmers co-operated with police, and that
problem is fading away, Audette said.

This year, most of the marijuana was found in clearings in forests,
while only a small amount was plucked from the middle of cornfields,
which used to be a standard location.

The SQ argues despite the continuing debate over the decriminalization
of marijuana, the public should be made aware of the drug's social
costs. Audette said many people are probably unaware where the profits
from the marijuana plants they seized yesterday were headed.

"The market and distribution of drugs on the street is controlled
almost entirely by organized crime. ... Even if there are people who
think they are independent (dealers), the only outlet to sell
marijuana is through organized crime and it goes right to their coffers."