POT PANEL

OPP At U.S. Summit

The U.S. war on drugs is getting a helping hand from a Canadian well
versed in the grow ops and cross-border smuggling that are feeding
America's hunger for pot.

Police and customs officials gathered in Michigan this week to learn
more about the indoor farms that are springing up around Ontario and
other provinces with alarming regularity, and how those operations are
nourishing the expansive drug market south of the border.

Answering their questions was Det. Staff Sgt. Rick Barnum, an
Orillia-based veteran of the OPP's anti-drug operations, and a man
intimately familiar with the booming business that is the marijuana
industry.

"It is extremely well organized," he told Orillia Today shortly before
heading off for the one-day conference.

According to Barnum, Canada boasts the dubious distinction of
supplying more marijuana to the lucrative U.S. market than nearly any
other country, ranking second only to Mexico in annual exports of the
illicit weed.

From suburban basements outfitted with crude lighting systems to
sophisticated operations like the one discovered inside Barrie's
former Molson brewery, so-called grow ops are responsible for a large
portion of the pot being inhaled below the 49th parallel.

"We supply more marijuana to the United States than the United States
does," Barnum said.

Much of it passes undetected through U.S. customs, the valuable buds
packaged in one-pound bricks that are stowed along with legitimate
cargo inside tractor trailers whose drivers are paid handsomely for
the risky trip.

A typical delivery can weigh as much as 2,000 lbs and fetch millions
of dollars on the street.

Barnum believes the rising popularity of indoor grow operations in
Canada is the product of an overly lenient justice system that does
little to discourage large-scale producers, who have come to view it
as a relatively low-risk proposition.

In contrast, growers in the U.S. who are nabbed with 99 plants or more
face a minimum five-year jail sentence, with penalties for pot
production rising dramatically depending on the amount seized.

Much to the frustration of drug agents working this side of the
border, Canadian judges can hand out jail terms of up to seven years,
but rarely do, Barnum said.

"If they get caught here, nine times out of 10, it is a conditional
sentence," he said.

A recent promise of stiffer sentences for dealers and growers -
announced as part of a larger drug strategy that would also
decriminalize possession of small amounts of pot - will have little
impact unless the courts get on board, he said.

"Just apply the laws that already exist," was his advice.

Based out of OPP Headquarters in Orillia, Barnum oversees drug
enforcement for the Huronia Region, Toronto and Peterborough.