ONTARIO POLICE 'OVERWHELMED' BY POT INDUSTRY

Drug Squads Are Losing the Battle, Says the OPP's Deputy Commissioner.

TORONTO -- Police in Ontario are fighting a losing battle against a
burgeoning marijuana industry that's threatening public safety, lining
the pockets of organized crime and robbing Canada's economy blind, law
enforcement leaders said yesterday. The number of marijuana grow
operations, or "grow ops," in Canada's most populous province grew by
a staggering 250 per cent between 2000 and 2002, says a new report by
the Criminal Intelligence Service Ontario.

The report, titled Green Tide: Indoor Marijuana Cultivation and its Impact
on Ontario, estimated the province's growers have produced anywhere from $2
billion to $12.5 billion worth of plants since 2000.

The "high-profit, low-risk" prospects of cultivating marijuana have
spawned a juggernaut that has police drug units "completely
overwhelmed," said Vaughn Collins, deputy commissioner of the Ontario
provincial police.

"We cannot do any more and we're not slowing it down," Collins said at
a news conference. "It's continuing to grow."

To make them hard to spot, grow houses are increasingly found in
quiet, well-heeled suburban areas, where, at first glance, they're
impossible to distinguish from their law-abiding neighbours.

Inside, they're hotbeds of peril: exposed wiring to bypass hydro
equipment, booby traps to ward off intruders and noxious chemical
compounds used in the cultivation process are ever-present dangers.

"I'm not certain the broader public understands the level and degree
to which organized crime has moved into this lucrative business and
created these environments in our communities," Collins said.

"That is the first step in our strategy, to create that
awareness."

Since 2000, as many as 10,000 children were believed to be living in
grow houses, their parents acting as "crop sitters," who manage the
day-to-day cultivation duties while maintaining a suburban-family facade.

"This isn't just about some profit for organized crime," Collins said.
"It's about the safety of our communities, it's about the safety of
our children and their neighbourhoods and their schools."

Because of the huge quantities of electricity required to power the
1000-watt lights used to grow marijuana, most operations secretly
siphon electricity off the grid, usually to the tune of between $1,500
and $2,000 a month.

That probably cost Ontario utilities $85 million in stolen power last
year, the report estimates. A grow operation is also up to 40 times
more likely to catch fire, the report said.

Much of the marijuana produced in Canada is being exported to the
U.S., Collins said, where it is routinely swapped for guns and harder
drugs like cocaine to avoid the exchange of money.

Durham police Chief Kevin McAlpine dismissed suggestions that the
growing cultivation problem has anything to do with a relaxed attitude
in Canada toward the use of marijuana. It's international demand for
pot that's fuelling the cultivation industry, he said.

BY THE NUMBERS

- - $12.7 billion: Maximum estimated revenue generated by marijuana
grown in Ontario

- - $260 million: Estimated cost to the Ontario economy of grow
operations

- - 1.2 million: Number of marijuana plants seized by
police

- - 1.2 million: Estimated number of kilograms of marketable marijuana
and related products produced in Ontario

- - $85 million: Estimated value of electricity stolen from Ontario
utilities in 2002

- - 15,000: Estimated number of grow houses operating in Ontario in
2002

- - 10,000: Estimated number of children who lived in marijuana grow
houses during the last four years

- - 500: Distance, in metres, of 17 per cent of grow houses dismantled
in 2002 from a primary or secondary school

- - 250: Percentage increase in the number of grow houses in Ontario
between 2000 and 2002

- - 40: Number of times more likely a grow house is to catch fire than a
normal dwelling

- - 6: Typical percentage of tetrahydrocannibinol (THC) in marijuana
grown in Ontario

- - 2: Typical percentage of THC in marijuana grown before the
mid-1980s.