POT-BUST VALUE DOUBTED

Halifax regional police are busy counting after one of the biggest drug
seizures in the force's history.

Police say they have seized $2.25 million in marijuana, as well as the
hydroponic equipment used to grow it, from a Dartmouth two-storey warehouse
and garage.

"It's certainly the biggest grow operation that we've ever taken down,"
said Const. Brenda Zima, Halifax regional police spokeswoman.

The 5,000-square-foot Waddell Avenue warehouse and a Tulip Street detached
garage were raided without incident Thursday and Friday evening. Officers
lugged away more than 1,300 plants. A Dumbarton Street home was also
raided, but only documents were seized.

Police are pursuing some suspects, but no arrests have been made. Zima said
a proceeds-of-crime unit including RCMP members is also involved because of
the scale of the seizures.

"This was no fly-by-night operation," said Zima.

But the $2.25-million price tag - loosely based on a $15-per-gram street
value - was challenged yesterday as being inflated.

"What the police say and what the actual dollar amount is on the street is
way off - exponentially off," said Mike Patriquin, a Marijuana Party member
and editor of pro-cannabis magazine Hempworks.

Patriquin says he learned in researching an article that the biggest plants
typically yield 50 grams of pot, which can sell for $8 a gram.

Zima conceded the value of the marijuana is an early estimation.

"That figure can change. They haven't been dried and they haven't been
weighed, but that's what we're looking at at this point," she said.

Patriquin says marijuana should be regulated by Ottawa and criticizes
prohibition as costly and unrealistic. Health Canada's recent move to allow
medicinal marijuana without legalizing the supply only feeds the problem,
he said.

"They are forcing people to go to the black market, and that's why
operations like this are flourishing," he said.