POLICE SEEK PUBLIC'S HELP TO STOP MARIJUANA GROW OPERATIONS IN HALTON

Halton Regional Police Service urges residents and municipal leaders to join
police in addressing the growing threat to public safety and economic loss
posed by indoor marijuana grow operations.

A recent study released by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police
reveals that so-called grow operations cost consumers millions of dollars in
stolen electricity and higher insurance costs.

"Commercial marijuana grow operations are located in urban and rural
communities, including residential areas. They are largely controlled by
organized crime, endanger children and their families and cost our economy
millions of dollars in stolen electricity," said Halton Police Chief Ean
Algar. "We need everyone's help in stopping this menace to our community."

Between 2000 and 2002, according to the report Green Tide: Indoor Marijuana
Cultivation and it's Impact on Ontario" it's estimated that indoor grow
operations increased by 250 per cent, with as many as 15,000 in operation in
2002 and 1.2 million plants seized.

During this period, commercial grow operations produced and housed as much
as 1.2 million kilograms of marketable marijuana and related products.
Revenue from this illegal activity is estimated to be as high as $12.7
billion.

Algar is concerned that organized crime seems to be fuelling the expansion
of commercial marijuana grow operations.

"These criminal groups are well organized, well financed, and ruthless in
pursuit of their business. I'll be seeking commitments from our elected
officials and business leaders to help us educate people and develop ways in
which we can stop the spread of marijuana grows in our community."

According to the report:

- - As many as 10,000 children and their families may have been raised in grow
operations - living in grow houses and tending the plants - between 2000 and
2003. Often recent immigrants, they are exposed to health and safety risks
and physical violence associated with these operations.

- - In 2002, Ontario's already strained electricity sector may have lost $85
million to illegal electricity theft associated with grow operations - 85
per cent of the estimated $100 million economic cost to the provincial
economy.

- - The likelihood of a fire in a grow operation dwelling may be as much as 40
times greater than in a regular household.

- - Grow operations are increasingly found near schools and residential
neighbourhoods. In York, Peel and Waterloo regions combined, 17 per cent of
grow operations were within 500 metres of a primary or secondary school.