ORGANIZED CRIME CAN BE RUN BY THE GRANDPA NEXT DOOR, TOO

As the marijuana-growing season peaked this fall, we ran two stories of
growing operations where some of the suspects arrested were in the 50-plus
age group. (Both raids recovered plants with a street value worth millions.)

It's a stark truth many of us don't want to face-that organized drug crime
in rural areas isn't necessarily run by the Hell's Angels or the Mafia. Just
as often, police say, it's local people, running drug operations for exactly
the same reason-fast money, and lots of it.

After the recent $3-million bust, Staff Sgt. Rick Barnum, who heads up the
OPP's Drug Enforcement Unit, pointed out the stark contrast between the
seized vehicles, the gleaming, late-model SUV and the rusty, old pick-up
truck. He said that was the story of drug operations in a nutshell: the guy
at the top who makes all the money drives the Caddy and the gofer at the
bottom drives the duct-taped truck. Only a select few, he said, were raking
in the big profits.

This time, they all went down together.

But how many are still out there? How many kids are out on the streets,
looking for the next high, because there are adults who will feed the habit
just to make a buck?

Because Canada produces such high-quality marijuana, the harvest from big
grow operations is smuggled to the U.S. to be traded for cocaine. Rick
Barnum said the reality is we are seeing cocaine here now, which a few years
ago was unheard of. Not just crack, which is bad enough, but the pure stuff.

We hear complaints about kids hanging around the street corners looking to
score, drug deals in back alleys, constant thefts from homes and cars;
almost all of it drug-related. I know of a place where kids have
experimented with a lethal mixture of cocaine and heroin-while riding at the
back of their school bus.

I don't believe for a minute the main source of that supply is some young
kid. Criminal organizations such as biker gangs aren't run by 19-year-olds,
and neither are local drug networks.

It is repulsive that middle-aged and senior citizens; parents and
grandparents, who run grow-ops, care only about money. It is an obscene
greed that will leave a legacy of addiction and despair along with the
family farm.