ORILLIA AREA GOING TO POT

Barrie may have had the biggest production, but numbers recently released
by the Huronia Combined Forces Drug Unit show Orillia is one of the
region's brightest marijuana-growing stars.

Out of 13 regions, the city of Orillia, Ramara and Severn townships - all
policed by Orillia OPP - accounted for about a third of the 16,856
marijuana plants seized by the joint police unit last year, states a report
presented at a meeting of the city's Police Services Board yesterday.

The unit confiscated 5,454 plants, worth an estimated $5.4 million - a
third of the $15 million seized last year -or more than double the amount
seized in most neighbouring communities, including Barrie.

Unlike the now notorious large-scale indoor pot-producing machine at the
former Molson plant in Barrie, 12 out of 13 operations busted around the
Sunshine City were outdoor operations.

In the largest, 6,000 plants - worth an estimated $6 million - were seized
on a Severn Township property, said Det. Sgt. Jamie Ciotka, the unit's
commander.

Hidden nooks and several good water sources make the area around Orillia an
outdoor pot growers' paradise, said Ciotka, adding most producers are
busted during the fall harvest season. Locally, nine people were arrested
last year by the unit.

"It's geographically a really good spot to grow marijuana. For instance,
you wouldn't grow it in highly populated areas where it could be easily
detected."

But he's reluctant to call Orillia a pot growing hot spot. Grow ops,
especially indoor ones, are increasing across the province, not just the
Sunshine City, he said.

In part, Ciotka attributes the region's higher bust rate to the
Orillia-based OPP headquarters.

"For instance, there's helicopters going in and out of there all the time
and they know what to look for."

Unlike some other areas, Ciotka said, the Orillia OPP also have a full-time
member of the joint drug forces unit at its detachment.

Though Ciotka couldn't say whether the local grow ops were linked to a
particular organized crime group, he added "that kind of a yield with that
many plants, you would have to (be) linked to someone to be able to make
profit on it."

Like its indoor-grown counterpart, most of the outdoor pot produced in the
province is shipped to the United States.