HEY, MAN, WE JUST SELL THE LIGHTS

Gardening Suppliers Face Increased Scrutiny As Police Try To Curb
Urban Pot Production

The 1,000 watts needed to power the Sunmaster metal-halide grow-light
kit make it blindingly bright. So bright that when one focuses on
Dominic Cramer after staring at the $450 device, little multihued
spots dance in front of the shop owner as he explains how his other
products work, including the Can-Fan charcoal filters that suck
suspicious aromas out of a room.

But the soft whir of ventilation fans in his second-floor Yonge Street
shop don't muffle the fulminations of the founder of the Toronto Hemp
Company. The 31-year-old entrepreneur can go on at length about his
wares, but frequently pauses to rant against "ignorant politicians,"
"police propaganda," "witch hunts," "Big Brother" and the general
"lunacy" of this country's marijuana laws.

If he sounds alarmed, he has a reason. Two officers recently parked
their cruiser outside Mr. Cramer's shop and spent a half hour checking
out his perfectly legal goods.

Outraged at what they call a "scourge" of indoor marijuana grow
operations in the Toronto area, police are looking more closely at the
relationship between grow ops and the rising number of places that
sell indoor growing equipment.

While indoor-gardening enthusiasts certainly exist, police don't think
they're the ones driving demand.

"You know where they [marijuana growers] are getting the stuff from --
it's all hydroponic stores," says Don Cardwell, a detective with York
Region's drug squad, which he says is contemplating greater scrutiny
of such shops. "It's something we have to consider: Cut the supplier
off," he says.

The fear of drawing too much attention may explain why equipment
vendors were reluctant to be interviewed about their businesses,
including Rexdale-based Homegrown Hydroponics, which has 25 locations
and advertises on radio station Q107's Psychedelic Sundays show. And
it's not only the little guys who fear being associated with illicit
grow operations. Home Depot spokesman Nick Cowling says the chain has
systems in place to monitor large purchases of items -- such as piping
or lighting -- that may contribute to grow operations. "We're always
going to help out the local authorities," he says.

Mr. Cramer, however, is more outspoken. While he sells all the
equipment needed to grow marijuana indoors -- fans to circulate carbon
dioxide and cool the high-wattage lights that boost yield, timers that
control lights to simulate night and day, charcoal filters to clean up
the smell -- he says his clientele are legitimate medicinal marijuana
users or people who grow only a few plants in closets or small rooms.
But he insists out-in-the-open vendors like him aren't supplying the
GTA grow-op boom, which has seen busts in Toronto alone jump from 33
in 2001 to more than 250 last year.

"It's not a big cash-generating industry for little guys like us," he
says, blaming the big-time profit-seeking syndicates of marijuana growers.

Pot activists such as Mr. Cramer differentiate themselves and their
clients from the large-scale growers that police are now routinely
taking down. They say that these gangs tend to have their own
networks, set up dummy corporations to buy gear wholesale, or even
send teams of people to purchase stuff from big-box hardware stores.

Police, however, say that crime gangs often have a hydroponic store at
the centre of their operations. "We've sent undercover officers in,"
Det. Cardwell says. "But they have a selective clientele whom they
know and trust, right? They have connections to get you the baby
marijuana plants as well, usually off-location, but they won't give
that information unless they really trust you."

Police also have to weigh whether intensive investigations pay off in
court. Take Project Potluck. Three years ago, police in Peel Region
circulated a news release announcing they, the RCMP, and even the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Agency teamed up for what was then described as a
major bust. After a 10-month sting, police said they bought much more
than equipment from four Mississauga stores: Marijuana plants and
expertise in growing them were also for sale. Police arrested nearly
20 people on drug charges and seized $1.7-million worth of property.

But a funny thing happened on the way to court. In what was supposed
to have been an open-and-shut case, most of the people charged
received house-arrest terms less lengthy than the time it took police
to investigate. One husband-and-wife team was forced to hand over
$200,000 in money, two houses and four cars that were found to be the
proceeds of crime, but only the wife was sentenced to jail time. And
Mississauga's All Seasons Hydroponics, the focal point of Potluck,
remains in business today.

Last September in Scarborough, Toronto Police made an even larger
bust. More than 40 suspects were arrested as police focused on two
indoor-gardening stores -- Caesar's Garden Centre and Jade Garden
Trading. The case is still before the courts, but it's alleged people
affiliated with the stores were selling equipment, expertise and baby
marijuana plants -- and also taking back mature plants and selling
them.

While Mr. Cramer says he sticks to selling legal goods, he wonders how
deep the scrutiny might extend. A B.C.-based friend of his was
recently arrested and Mr. Cramer believes the man was targeted after
being spotted buying soil at Home Depot. As British Columbia tends to
lead Canada on all marijuana-cultivation trends, Mr. Cramer fears that
officials in Ontario may also pick up strange West Coast ideas -- such
as "the insanity" of setting up registries for growing-equipment
shops, as some politicians there are now proposing.