SEIZE HOMES, DRUG OFFICER TELLS GROW-OP TRIAL

Pot growers can easily earn $1,000 from each marijuana plant they
grow in secret home farms, a police officer said yesterday.

Const. Tom Soper, who works in the Waterloo regional police drug
unit, was testifying at a hearing where the federal government is
trying to seize four Kitchener homes used in marijuana grow operations.

Lawyers for the five family members convicted of producing pot are
trying to reduce the estimated street value of the 593 plants found
throughout the four homes. The Crown argues the crop could have
brought in $593,000 in profit for the family.

But the defence is downplaying the level of sophistication of the
operation in hopes of persuading a judge not to order forfeiture of
all the homes as part of sentencing. Lawyers say this would be
disproportionate to the crime.

Soper said the estimate of $1,000 per plant is based on a yield of
four ounces per plant, at $250 per ounce.

Based on his experience, four ounces would be a minimum yield, Soper
said. He pointed to cannabis marijuana seed companies that sell seeds
on the Internet and advertise their yields. All promote their product
as producing more than four ounces, he said.

He suggested a commercial grower wouldn't be interested in growing
marijuana with a yield lower than that.

But defence lawyers countered that yields could be lower if growers
were inexperienced, didn't have high quality grow equipment or
produced sickly plants.

In photos, some of the seized plants appeared spindly and bore few
leaves, but Soper said the growers may have deliberately trimmed them
back to produce more of the valuable bud and less leaf.

He agreed these plants were smaller than those seized by police in
other high-profile local marijuana home-grow busts. But he still
considered it a commercial grow operation.

He said the four homes were in well-established, middle to
upper-middle-class residential neighbourhoods.

Police found 215 plants at a home on 4 Wyandotte Ct. At 117 Oneida
Pl., there were 152 plants, at 31 Briarfield St., there were 164
plants, and at 2 Corfield Ave., 62.

Lawyer Brennan Smart suggested yellowing plants, tilted plants
indicative of root rot, and plants not set up in rows were all signs
of inexperienced growers.

Lawyer Craig Parry challenged Soper's estimated value of the plants.
He said there was no evidence to say the growers were selling the pot
by the gram, the ounce or the pound. Soper agreed they would earn
less money selling it by the pound -- between $1,200 and $2,200 a pound.

Kitchener's Ontario Court heard police have busted 155 marijuana grow
operations in the past five years. In recent years, the number has
dropped. Soper attributed that to police splitting their manpower
between grow ops and street drugs.

The family did not have hydro bypasses in any of their homes. They
used a 220-volt electrical outlet for a dryer as their power source.

Children were removed from the Oneida Place and Briarfield Street
homes. Defence lawyers have argued they were living at the Wyandotte
Court address, but Soper said police saw few furnishings there.