MARIJUANA HARVESTS BRING RAIDS

240,000 plants seized in past month. Illicit business likened to a hydra:
'You cut one off and it grows three'

With plants in full bloom and police at their heels, marijuana growers are
struggling to bring in the harvest this year.

Last week, police raided several large-scale pot plantations across the
province, including the largest growing operation in Laval history.

Acting on a tip from Montreal police, Laval officers last Monday uncovered
2,742 plants and 6,500 clippings being cultivated in five buildings of an
industrial park on Bergman St.

No arrests have been made in the raid, which netted drugs worth an estimated
$14 million, and $75,000 in equipment.

On Friday, a man in his 40s was arrested after the Surete du Quebec found
1,160 plants worth more than $1 million growing in a bungalow in Lery, near
Chateauguay, about 30 kilometres south of Montreal.

Earlier in the day, a 43-year-old man was arrested when as many as 2,000
plants were found growing in a chalet in Baie Comeau, 675 kilometres
northeast of Montreal.

In Val d'Or, 530 kilometres northwest of Montreal, a 36-year-old man will
appear in court tomorrow after 2,000 plants were discovered in a wooded area
50 kilometres from town.

That same night, an 800-plant operation was raided in Ste. Christine near
Acton Vale, 85 kilometres east of Montreal.

So far, the month-long sweep by local police, the Surete du Quebec and the
RCMP, dubbed "Operation cisaille," or garden shears, has uncovered about
240,000 plants with an estimated street value of $200 million, police said.
That's about half the number of plants seized in 2001 and 100,000 fewer than
2002.

Last week, Public Security Minister Jacques Chagnon called the operation
"the best in five or six years."

Still, he likened the pot growing business to a multi-headed hydra, "you cut
one off and it grows three more," Chagnon told reporters.

Those who support the decriminalization of marijuana say the annual raids do
nothing to keep pot off the streets and have no effect on price.

"Mother Nature does far more damage than the cops ever could," said
Marc-Boris St. Maurice, head of the Montreal-based Marijuana Party of
Canada.

He said police focus their efforts at this time of year, when other crops
have already been harvested.

"Also, marijuana plants stay green while others turn yellow," making them
more visible from the air helping police identify the plants, St. Maurice
said.

Growers have also begun cultivating single plants spread across larger
areas, he said.

"So they have to find one plant at a time," he said, adding outdoor pot
growers "work by volume."