POT GROWERS OFTEN DRUG TRAFFICKERS, POLICE REPORT SAYS

Drug traffickers importing cocaine and ecstasy often control marijuana grow
operations across the country, the RCMP says in its annual report on the
drug trade in Canada. The report, released Friday, revealed several key
findings on drugs last year, including:

- - Marijuana grow operations are spreading to epidemic proportions in Ontario.

- - The use, trafficking and production of methamphetamines, commonly called
speed, is of increasing concern across Canada.

- - Cocaine is entering the country more often on sailing and fishing boats,
compared with past years when it was smuggled in marine containers.

- - Most heroin in the Canadian market is coming from Southwest and Southeast
Asia. Police were also finding heroin from Latin America more often.

- - Jamaica and Guyana are the main source of cocaine destined for Canada.

Police forces have long considered marijuana grow operations a
fast-spreading epidemic. Earlier this year, police across Ontario came
together for the Green Tide Summit, aimed at putting a dent in pot grow houses.

But linking grow houses to other drug conspiracies seems to be an emerging
trend and one that's hit close to home.

In early July, Oxford Community Police revealed a two-week sting in
Woodstock led to the city's largest bust -- a $1.6-million marijuana grow
house in a restaurant building.

At the time, police said the grow house appeared to have been connected to
a larger operation, possibly with processing labs in Toronto for Ontario
distribution and export to the U.S.

Two Toronto men were charged in that case.

In London, police have busted 182 home-grow operations in the last two
years. In most cases, the grower didn't live in the house.

For the last five years, police forces in Canada have seized an average of
1.1 million pot plants a year, a 500 per cent increase since 1993.

"Police in all provinces are reporting marijuana cultivation as one of
their main drug enforcement problems," the report said. "This criminal
activity has reached levels that could be deemed epidemic in the provinces
of British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec."

Clandestine speed labs are also a skyrocketing problem, especially in Perth
County where in the last two years police have busted 11 labs.

The RCMP report shows similar increases across the country. In 2003, police
uncovered 37 speed labs, compared with two in 1998.

Organized crime, which is heavily involved in the production and
trafficking of methamphetamine, is blamed as one reason for the increase,
the report says.

Rural areas are a prime spot for the labs because chemicals used to make
speed emit strong odours that can easily be detected by neighbours or police.

London police are investigating whether the detached garage of an Egerton
Street home was being used as a speed lab.

Police were called last Monday to investigate a smell coming the garage.

Police are still waiting for Health Canada test results on the chemical
they found in a sealed pail, but said they're fairly sure it was anhydrous
ammonia, one of the key ingredients in making speed.

London police have found two speed labs in the last eight years.