DRUG INDUSTRY HAS SEEN GROWTH, CHANGES IN POLICING
MARIJUANA

In the office of the Central East Drug Unit there are a pile of
magazines.

They're all about marijuana, rich with pictures, ads and all the
latest information on how to grow a better crop.

It's the job of the eight officers in the drug unit to know what
marijuana growers are up to, Det. Const. Ernie Garbutt explains, and
the magazines help them learn the new trade, the new jargon and new
ways of growing marijuana.

The Central East Drug Unit falls under the OPP's organized crime
bureau, and the unit polices the region that includes Peterborough,
Northumberland, the Haliburton counties and the City of Kawartha Lakes.

It focuses on drugs but increasingly investigations include stolen
property, stolen electricity and firearms.

"We come across all aspects," Garbutt said.

Detectives rely on tips from informants, Crime Stoppers and even the
people they arrest, Garbutt said, and sometimes just a good sense of
popular growing areas is enough to discover a growing operation.
Creeks, lakes and bogs are common areas for people to grow marijuana
because those areas are usually off the beaten path.

The team isn't limited to their region and will help in investigations
all over Ontario, Garbutt said.

Sometimes the unit just travels around the province, eradicating
marijuana plants.

Detectives aren't out chasing one or two plants, Garbutt
said.

"We're looking for major growers, people who are trafficking cocaine,
pills," he said. "You always want the bigger fish."

Det. Const. Kaury Jones said they're seeing a growing trend in
prescription narcotics, and busts for pills are getting bigger and
more frequent.

Each week officers meet with Sgt. Scott Mahoney, but drugs are hard to
plan for.

The officers are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a
week.

"It's a juggling act," Jones said.

The unit has grown to match the growing drug industry.

The unit once had only three officers, but now has eight, a sergeant
and a full-time intelligence officer.

Seizing 100 plants was once a big deal, and now finding 20,000 plants
is considered normal.

They used to deal with grams of cocaine, now it's ounces, Jones
said.

Jones said officers can't pay attention to sentences in court. They
have to work with the mindset of what gets people to court.

"What happens after that is really out of our hands," he said.