MOUNTIES BEGIN LISTING BUSTED MARIJUANA GROW OPS ON WEBSITE

New Brunswick is among the first group of provinces included in a new
online RCMP database listing the locations of marijuana grow
operations that police have busted.

Launched this week, the RCMP website is available to the public and is
comprised of information from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in
Atlantic Canada, as well as data from six other provinces.

It provides the addresses of the grow-ops that have been shut down and
the number of plants that police seized.

New Brunswick RCMP spokesman Cpl. Guy Paul Larocque said the website
is part of the RCMP's plan to educate the public about the dangers of
marijuana grow operations and the criminal history of certain properties.

"Wherever they exist, there's always a potential for increased
criminal activity and a greater chance for fire, explosions and even
violence on top of great economic costs," he said.

The RCMP says grow-ops pose a whole host of health and safety hazards,
including mould inside buildings where marijuana is grown and
increased fire risk.

"It's to serve to inform the Canadian public about the consequences
and the destructive impact these criminal groups have on their
communities," said Larocque.

Dwayne Hayes, president of the New Brunswick Real Estate Association,
said the public disclosure of such information is also positive for
potential homebuyers because it assists them with readily finding out
"which properties were used in the past as grow operations."

Several municipal police forces across Canada, including Ottawa,
London and Winnipeg, have similar data bases.

The RCMP website is part of the force's new national marijuana
strategy, which is aimed at cracking down on the number of illegal
drug operations across the country.

For New Brunswick, the online database currently lists 11 residential
locations where the RCMP shut down marijuana grow ops in 2010 and so
far in 2011.

With the exception of one grow op in an outbuilding, all were located
inside residences in a variety of locations across the province. The
marijuana seized in them ranged in size from 75 plants to 561 plants,
which police removed from a home located at 2095 Route 950 in
Petit-Cap east of Moncton along the Northumberland Strait.

The latest grow-op shutdown in New Brunswick took place on Thursday
when police busted an illegal operation inside a house and
outbuildings on Grey Road in Saint-Charles in Kent County. No arrests
have been made so far in that case.

During August and September alone, the RCMP shut down dozens of
marijuana grow operations in Kent and Northumberland counties.

The Co-ordinated Marijuana Enforcement Team (CMET) and the Department
of Public Safety's Off-Road Vehicle Enforcement Unit, seized more than
7,500 marijuana plants from outdoor grow operations on public and
private land.

Police estimate that once mature, the plants could have produced more
than 3.5 million joints.

While the locations of those grow-ops will likely end up on the new
data base, they haven't yet been made public because investigations
are continuing, said Sgt. Jeff Johnston of Kent County.

He said marijuana operations remain a big problem in New Brunswick and
some of that activity is linked to organized crime.

"Obviously, there is some organized crime in New Brunswick and it has
links to organized crime in areas not limited to Canada," he said.

Johnston said citizens themselves have to remain vigilant about the
possibility that properties in their own neighbourhoods could be
operating as grow-ops. He urges citizens to report suspicious activity
to police.

"No part of New Brunswick is immune from grow operations," he said.
"There have been seizures throughout the province."

Information can also be provided anonymously through Crime Stoppers at
1-800-222-TIPS (8477), or www.crimenb.ca .