ILLEGAL RAISING OF MARIJUANA AN 'EPIDEMIC'

Growing Operations Have Increased Six-Fold Since 1993: RCMP Report

The number of illegal marijuana growing operations is rising so fast
that some Canadian police agencies are being overwhelmed, the RCMP says.

"In some parts of the country, the phenomenon has reached epidemic
proportions," says a report by the force's criminal intelligence
directorate. "Police resources are now taxed to the point where
difficult choices must be made when faced with competing priorities."

In 2001, major Canadian police forces seized close to 1.4 million
marijuana plants, a six-fold increase since 1993, according to the
report, Marijuana Cultivation in Canada: Evolution and Current Trends.

Based on the seizures and average yield per plant, the current annual
production is estimated to be 800 tonnes. "The sheer size of those
operations has also reached unprecedented levels. Every year, several
multi-thousand plant operations are discovered, both indoor and
outdoor," the report says.

Last year, Canadian police and customs officials seized about 54
million grams of bulk marijuana, up from 28 million in 2001.

About 88 per cent of marijuana cultivation was in British Columbia,
Ontario and Quebec, according to the report.

Canada's marijuana market, which in the 1970s was "loosely organized,
unstable" and "relatively free of professional involvement," has
become organized crime.

Motorcycle gangs who once dominated the market, are now being
challenged by Asian gangs. It is evident in Alberta, for example,
where Asian gangs now control up to 15 per cent of the market, equal to
that run by outlaw bikers in the province, according to the report.

Violence is "an intrinsic part" of illegal drug operations. "Home
invasions, drug ripoffs, burglaries, assaults, and murders, are only a
few examples," the report says. Some sites have been booby-trapped
with pipe bombs, trip-wired shotguns and cyanide by criminals
intending to protect their operations.

Technology has made the marijuana more potent. The report says THC, the
major psychoactive ingredient of canna-bis, at two per cent of the
drug in 1965; has risen to more than 10 per cent, even the
"mid-teens."

Profit is the attraction. With a "comparatively small initial
investment, the grower can potentially reap profits of well over
$1,000,000 within the first year for an operation capable of producing
a few hundred plants of high quality marijuana about every three
months," the report says.

Huge profits from illegal marijuana growing are often used by
organized crime "to finance other illicit activities, such as the
importation of Ecstasy, liquid hashish and cocaine," the report says.

That growers are moving more of their illegal operations outdoors
means "more illicit crops will go undetected," the report says.

"High profitability, low risk, and relatively lenient sentences
continue to entice growers and traffickers, making it difficult, if
not impossible, for law enforcement agencies to make a truly lasting
impact on the marijuana cultivation industry in Canada," the report says.