GROW-OPS A 'BLACK EYE' ON CANADA

Drugs An Epidemic, Fantino Says

Illegal marijuana cultivation has reached epidemic proportions in
Ontario and justice officials in the United States have branded their
northern neighbour a "source country," the province's top police
official said yesterday.

Marijuana is exported south and traded for crystal meth and crack
cocaine, which are then brought back into Canada, OPP Commissioner
Julian Fantino said.

"The going terminology is 'brown south, white north,' " he said,
adding marijuana is also being exchanged for guns.

"It's a black eye on Canada when you have the United States ... refer
to us as a source country of marijuana."

Investigating and shutting down marijuana grow-ops make up 60% of the
workload of the force's drug enforcement unit, OPP Insp. Brian Martin
said.

Cracking down on those operations should help drive down the import of
crystal meth and crack cocaine, he said.

"You have to stop the problem at one end and hopefully that product's
not coming back in."

OPP announced it seized and destroyed more than 118,000 marijuana
plants from 220 grow operations, charging 56 people during its annual
eight-week marijuana eradication program -- up from 10,000 plants from
last year.

Over the last five years the force has investigated nearly 2,800
grow-ops and seized more than 2,700 weapons.

An increasing number of suppliers are moving from indoor to outdoor
grow-ops, which can produce more plants, police said. The OPP found
one outdoor operation producing 40,000 plants.

There is also an "alarming increase" in the use of loaded weapons,
animal traps, armed guards and even illegal immigrants by growers to
ward off so-called "pot pirates" and police, they said.

Organized crime is a huge operation with tentacles that reach
internationally and its involvement in grow-ops is increasing, Fantino
said.

The "drug sub-culture" was responsible for what Fantino called an
epidemic of very serious crimes, such as robberies, several years ago
in Orillia.

"(Marijuana) is the precursor, if you will, to so much of the violence
and other activities ... that end up victimizing the most vulnerable
communities," he said.

"You know full well what the consequences of what crack does to a
neighbourhood, the vulnerability of some of these people in these
neighbourhoods, the violence associated with it."

Canada is too soft on drug-related criminals, he added.

"Those (criminals) working cross-border, we'd love for them to get
indicted into the United States because that's where they're really
going to get the business."