POLICE SEE POT GROWERS SPREAD NORTH

TORONTO -- The discovery of a northern Ontario marijuana grow operation the
size of three football fields is a sign that Canada's pot-growing business
is expanding both in size and location, experts say.

Many grow ops, which have been multiplying in the suburbs around Toronto in
recent years, are moving to rural locations to take advantage of bigger
growing areas and to escape police detection, says the acting head of the
OPP's drug enforcement squad.

"We're seeing a trend where we see grow operators across the province move
further north, and increase in size," said Det.-Insp. Frank Elbers.

Indoor grow ops used to be the norm because people felt the plant produced
was of a higher quality in terms of THC, the active ingredient in
marijuana, said Elbers, but this is no longer the case. As a result, more
growers are moving from southern Ontario to rural regions where they can
plant outdoors, he said.

More than 21,000 marijuana plants were seized Sunday from behind a home in
Iroquois Falls, about 70 kilometres northeast of Timmins.

The seizure followed a July 19 bust, in which police seized more than 7,000
plants, ecstasy pills and growing equipment in Sundridge, about 70
kilometres south of North Bay.

And in what is thought to be the province's largest bust, police last year
found 25,000 plants growing everywhere inside the three-storey former
Molson brewery in Barrie.

"This year we've just seen a real swing to where we've had half a dozen
growers of a large nature, and everyone seems to be from southern Ontario,"
said Det.-Sgt. Bill O'Shea, a unit commander with the OPP's drug
enforcement section in North Bay.

He said another major consideration for these rural operators is something
any potential property owner thinks about -- that it costs a lot less to
live in the country.

"It's like any other business, it's square footage," he said. "And you want
to get your product on as much square footage as you can."

The deaths of four RCMP officers in Alberta in March showed criminals there
too are beginning to prefer the quiet isolation of rural spots.

O'Shea said heavy policing in urban areas could be a factor.

"(Growers) are moving to other areas where they don't feel we're as aware
or sophisticated," he said.

But he said no one is certain why more rural grow ops are being found.

"That doesn't mean they weren't here, it means we haven't detected them
before."

Police emphasized that more outdoor grow ops doesn't mean indoor operations
are going away.

"My experience tells me this is just another branch of your company,"
O'Shea said. "It's like any other business. With GM, there's a truck plant
and there's a car plant. This is the same idea."