POLICE PURSUE TODAY'S HIGH-YIELD POT

Homegrown Now Commonly Packs Much Higher Potency Than Decades Ago

Yarmouth - This is definitely not your father's marijuana.

RCMP are wrapping up their annual homegrown marijuana harvest around Nova
Scotia and have brought in nearly 5,000 mature plants from forests and
backyards since mid-August.

But what's different about this year's haul and the stuff harvested in the
past few years is a big increase in delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content.

THC is responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis.

"Homegrown marijuana is not what homegrown marijuana was 20 years ago,"
said Sgt. Cy Chaytor of Halifax, the man in charge of the RCMP's marijuana
eradication program for Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

"The THC content is much higher than it was," he said Friday.

THC levels once were in the .9 per cent range but today are as high as 10
to 15 per cent, Sgt. Chaytor said.

He doesn't know why levels have increased so significantly. Perhaps
selective harvesting and genetic plant manipulation have created a more
potent product.

Whatever the reason, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration intelligence
briefing from December 2000 says Canadian growers produce cannabis plants
with powerful buds, often using sophisticated hydroponic cultivation
techniques.

The Nova Scotia sweep uncovered two such hydroponic operations, in the
Windsor and Truro areas.

The DEA briefing paper also says the term "BC Bud," referring to the bud of
the female cannabis plant grown in British Columbia, has become synonymous
with high-potency Canadian-grown marijuana.

Such marijuana has a THC content ranging from 15 to as much as 25 per cent,
far higher than the naturally grown cannabis plants of the 1970s, which had
a THC content of only two per cent, the DEA says.

"We accomplished quite a lot," Sgt. Chaytor said of the Nova Scotia
operation spanning the past seven weeks.

"The detachments over the summer develop intelligence as to where stuff is
growing," he said.

"We don't always know who's growing it (but) we go out and harvest it."

The police harvest is up from last year, "mainly because we flew more hours
this year," Sgt. Chaytor said.

Mounties used a Natural Resources Department helicopter to help pinpoint
some locations.

"You'll get into the woods and you could be 100 feet from it and be
searching around and not come to it," Sgt. Chaytor said.

Helicopters are able to guide ground teams quickly to a pot patch.

Mounties also obtained search warrants to enter some properties.

Calls from the public, often through Crime Stoppers, help the RCMP find
their dope.

Mounties arrested 10 people this year during their annual harvest and
charges are pending against folks who happened to be on a property when
officers arrived.

Growers often harvest homegrown marijuana after a frost.

"This time of year the bud is coming full, and the bud is what they want to
sell," Sgt. Chaytor said.

"We've had exceptionally good weather, so they may run into October before
they harvest. We certainly didn't get it all."

A good quality plant could yield as much as a half-kilogram of marijuana,
maybe worth $1,000.

"My driving force is to keep it out of the schools," Sgt. Chaytor said.