HAWKESBURY BUZZING WITH POT FIND

WILD DISCOVERY HAS RESIDENTS TALKING

Residents in Hawkesbury weren't surprised to hear the OPP seized more than
9,000 marijuana plants Thursday in the rural area near their town.

The way they see it, pot plants grow like the weeds they actually are in
the many isolated fields found off the back roads.

Seated in a small diner in downtown Hawkesbury, 30-year resident Denise
Bernier said she sometimes reads about the pot seizures in the local papers.

"A lot of young people take drugs in Hawkesbury. That's what they do. I'm
not surprised when I hear of it," Bernier said.

"We hear about it more and more. People are planting the marijuana
everywhere they can," added Andre Lafontaine as he paid his bill at the
register.

"There's a lot of money to be made."

When Lafontaine heard about the pot seizure he was more concerned the
plants might have been grown without his knowledge on his 14 acres of
vacant land in eastern Hawkesbury.

"They could plant anything in there and you wouldn't know about it. Look at
me, they'll think it's me. I'm a biker," the leather-clad Lafontaine joked,
pointing to his Harley Davidson motorcycle on the street.

In fact, the close to $9 million worth of marijuana plants cut down from
two undisclosed locations near the town were of the wild variety.

For that reason, no arrests are anticipated, said Det. Staff Sgt. Rick
Burgess of the Eastern Region Drug Unit of the OPP.

Nonetheless, many residents have concerns about the marijuana that grows in
the area.

"I've had people in my office that want it out of their fields. It's easy
for (marijuana growers) to cut out the centre of the field, plant the crop
and harvest it before the corn's taken in," said Louise Sproule, owner of
The Review, a weekly newspaper that serves eastern Ontario and western Quebec.

She said farmers are often afraid to go to the police in case of reprisals.

"If you live in a remote area and it happens to be your neighbour (who has
planted them), they're going to know who's ratted on them. Some of these
people have powerful and shady connections in the city," she said.

Det. Chris Nicholas of the OPP drug unit said he's heard rumblings from
farmers about pot plants in their fields.

Farmers find notes in their mailboxes which state that people want to grow
plants on the property, said Nicholas.

The notes say the farmers will be paid for their silence, he said. "Some
call us and others don't. The farmers that don't, usually get caught and
get charged," he said.

"But the majority don't put up with that."

Nicholas pointed out the problem exists all over Ontario and not just in
the Hawkesbury area.

In the past three months, police services across the Ottawa Valley have
executed 47 search warrants at locations from Pembroke to Hawkesbury and
have charged 68 individuals with 134 offences.

Copyright (c) 1998, Canoe Limited Partnership.

Checked-by: Richard Lake