RECENT BUSTS DO LITTLE TO QUELL CITY'S POT INDUSTRY

High US demand and organized crime make economics of the pot trade more complex

The numbers sure look impressive. A big pot bust at four city homes
announced in a Sep 7 press release issued by a police
marijuana-busting squad called the Green Team brought in "a total of
2 250 plants worth an estimated $2.2 million," which police estimate
would eliminate almost 11 million joints.

But as the team's supervising officer told Vue, from an economic
point of view, the bust would have the same impact on pot prices that
a single Edmonton gas station's closure would have on city gas prices: none.

With marijuana being the top export of neighbouring British Columbia,
Ian Gillan says marijuana remains readily available, and at the same price.

"The supply is so massive at this point, I don't know if you could
take it off the market," he says.

This example of pot economics seems to run against classic models
that suggest cutting off supply of a product hikes its price, making
it more lucrative to grow, and leading to more people getting into growing.

With 80 per cent of the pot grown in local home-based growing
operations (or "grow-ops") heading to the United States, the
economic, social and political picture behind local marijuana growing
is complex. Most Canadian pot is shipped south of the border--where
it's known as "BC bud" no matter where it was grown--to satisfy
massive US consumption, Gillan says.

"You get a higher grade (quality) through a grow-op," adds Staff
Sergeant Ian Sanderson, the drug and organized crime awareness
service coordinator for the Alberta RCMP.

With the American "war on drugs" less of an influence, Canada's
relatively weaker drug laws play a role in why so much US-bound
marijuana is grown north of the border.

As an example, Gillan says being caught and convicted of growing 100
pot plants would typically land someone five years in jail in
Montana, while in Alberta a conditional sentence would likely be given.

Pot's export orientation can also be explained by a mantra among
criminals that to lessen the chances of getting caught you don't make
a mess in your backyard, he says.

Police say organized crime is behind most marijuana, pointing to the
deep pockets needed to start a growing operation.

"They're looking to turn a couple hundred thousand bucks into a
million," says Gillan, noting how hard it would be for low-income
people to start such an operation.

When it was pointed out that the seven people arrested in the Sep 7
bust had names indicating Asian/Vietnamese heritage, he was hesitant
to comment.

"It becomes a legal quagmire when identifying a group," says the
staff sergeant. "I'm not going to profile ... it would be unfair."

Gillan says some immigrants getting involved in grow ops may have
come from countries where drug cultivation was seen as a means to
survive, with 200-year family traditions of growing opium as an example.

They may have lived under corrupt, heavy-handed governments, not
having the same sense of the law as someone who was raised in Canada, he says.

An immigrant himself, the officer notes "no one sat me down and
explained the laws" of Canada when he went through the process of
coming to the country.

The Sep 7 busts took place at homes in La Perle, Aldergrove,
Mayliewan and Rhatigan Ridge, all neighbourhoods in Edmonton's
relatively new and wealthy suburbs.

Sanderson says grow ops are more likely to set up in larger homes in
quiet communities, where there is a lessened risk of getting caught
stealing the large amounts of electricity for example.

While smaller inner-city homes generally don't have the square
footage to support grow ops, finding them in a neighbourhood like
Norwood wouldn't surprise him either, he says.

Pot seeds can be ordered over the internet, but good marijuana plants
are often cloned for their quality.

"They tend to be very selective," says the sergeant of the growers.

About four crops a year can be cultivated, bundled and distributed,
with the growers having the same distribution system any business
would have to ship marijuana internationally or to the local
trafficker at the high school.

Pot can be smuggled into the US many different ways, from aircraft to
boats and vehicles, he says, and it rarely comes back as American money.

What comes back is often cocaine or guns, the sergeant says, so
cutting off marijuana exports does have a positive effect on safety
despite the low economic impact.