BUDDING 'EPIDEMIC'

$30m Grow Op Part of Bigger Problem: Cops

BARRIE - A marijuana "factory" concealed within a sprawling old
brewery just steps from a busy highway is proof Canada's pot problem
has reached "epidemic proportions," police said yesterday. The former
Molson brewery in Barrie, which is visible from Hwy. 400, was raided
on the weekend by 100 police officers.

They found marijuana with an estimated street value of $30 million,
along with a grow op of staggering proportions.

"This particular marijuana factory is the largest and most
sophisticated I'm aware of in Canada," said provincial police deputy
commissioner Vaughn Collins.

"Commercial marijuana operations have reached epidemic proportions in
Ontario; they are in every community and most are controlled by
organized crime."

Plants in Vats

Across a 5,400-sq.-metre complex the size of a football field, police
found more than 25,000 pot plants growing everywhere -- even inside
cavernous vats once used to brew beer.

"This is not a ma-and-pa operation," said Barrie Police Chief Wayne
Frechette.

A police video shot after the raid showed the vats teeming with
marijuana plants and an elaborate electrical room where hydro was used
to power the lights that facilitate the growing process.

Huge drawers, used to hold harvested marijuana to allow it to dry,
were seen in the video, each one brimming with buds.

The facility was set up to operate 24 hours a day and included living
quarters capable of housing as many as 50 people at once, said OPP
Det. Staff Sgt. Rick Barnum.

"These areas ... included common areas with beds, televisions, fridges
and stoves similar to dormitory-type facilities," Barnum said.

Frechette, who cited the "big-box" operation as an example of how
marijuana has allowed organized crime to penetrate Canadian
communities, urged the public to be vigilant and watch for "suspicious
activities."

The Barrie grow op is likely not the only one of its scale in Canada,
law enforcement officials warned.

"Just because we have not stumbled on them ... doesn't mean they're
not there," said RCMP Chief Supt. Raf Souccar, the force's director
general of drugs and organized crime.

"The risk is low, the profit is high, deterrence is not there, so it
makes it an attractive proposition."

'Lucky Find'

Police estimate there are some 15,000 illegal marijuana grow
operations in Ontario.

But operations like the one in Barrie are not commonplace, insisted
Alan Young, a prominent Toronto lawyer best known for his work as a
marijuana advocate and activist.

Young, who insisted that most marijuana cultivated in Canada is grown
on a small scale for personal use, accused police of trumpeting their
discovery in Barrie in an effort to sway the federal government away
from decriminalization.

"This really was a lucky find for the police and they'll exploit it to
gain greater support."