REEFER MADNESS

Cops Harvest Millions In Pot Busts

A Killaloe OPP raid that smashed yet another area pot plantation means
police have put almost $26 million of the drug up in smoke this month alone.

Tipped-off investigators raided an Old Barry's Bay Rd. residence early
Thursday, uncovering $225,000 in marijuana and a full-fledged hydroponics
lab inside.

But while police experts brand their tough end-of-summer eradication blitz
a success, they admit it's barely denting the street supply.

"It has been stepped up, certainly we're finding more," regional police
drug squad Staff-Sgt. Larry Colotelo said yesterday. "We're getting
probably a very small percentage of it."

HUGE FIND

Last week, OPP and regional officers found a crop totalling $15 million on
a rural West Carleton property -- one of the biggest such finds in recent
years.

A week earlier, cops uprooted 10,000 plants with street value of $10
million in various Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry and Prescott-Russell farmers'
fields.

And this past Tuesday, $350,000 worth was hauled off a Fort Rd. vacant lot
by narcotics officers in Val-des-Monts.

Within 10 days in July, Quebec police also shut down a Montebello operation
capable of producing $5 million worth of the drug annually before seizing
$1 million more from a Cantley house.

Utilizing a small plane and with help from the public, law enforcement has
this year heightened attempts to seek and destroy Eastern Ontario plots of
pot -- often linked to bikers and other organized crime groups.

SEASON'S END

"It's the end of the growing season and we have to get it now before the
people growing it take it out," Colotelo said.

Police say that although soil conditions are good here, a large amount of
the weed on the streets is imported from upstate New York.

"It's a cash crop, you take your chances growing it," Colotelo added. "It's
labour intensive but with time and effort the profits are good. There's a
lot of money to be made, all tax-free. You can get good returns."

Despite the amount recovered in recent weeks, production here still is
nowhere near that in British Columbia -- renowned for its top-quality weed.

It's estimated that marijuana is an $8-billion industry nationally -- half
of that in Canada's westernmost province alone.