Pubdate: Wed, 25 Sep 2002
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2002 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Sean Gordon

POT PLANT BUSINESS IS SMOKING

New Specialty Emerges: Female Plant Seedlings

A budding new facet of Quebec's booming marijuana industry is showing 
underground growers the value of getting back to their roots.

Covert marijuana production has become such a large-scale industry in this 
province that it's now possible to make a living supplying other illicit 
growers with tiny cannabis seedlings, which are said to fetch $5 to $8 each 
on the black market.

In a recent raid, police discovered 500 2-week-old seedlings stacked in a 
bedroom closet.

It's believed that their owner had no intention of growing them to 
bud-producing maturity.

"We've found there are people out there now who are earning a lot of money 
doing this, selling seedlings to bigger growers," said Roch Cote, an RCMP 
drug investigator who is attached to the provincial anti-biker task force.

Cote was part of a trio of police officers who held a workshop on Quebec's 
marijuana trade at World Forum 2002, a global conference on drugs and 
dependencies that's taking place this week at the Palais des Congres.

The market for the seedlings has arisen partly to satisfy the ever-growing 
demands of Quebec's illegal marijuana farming, which has reached industrial 
proportions.

It has also benefited from plant genetics.

There is a slightly better than 50-per-cent chance that marijuana seeds 
will produce a male plant, which won't bloom and doesn't have enough 
tetrahydrocannabinol (or THC, marijuana's psychoactive ingredient) in its 
leaves to be profitable.

Therefore, pot growers who start with seeds often find themselves culling 
about half their plants in order to exclusively grow female plants, which 
produce blooms or "buds" that can then be smoked.

"If you have a female plant, you can basically make an unlimited number of 
cuttings. A lot of people sell the cuttings now rather than grow them to 
maturity," said Sgt. Mark Pearson, another World Forum panelist, who 
supervises the Mounties' drug unit in Kingston, Ont.

Some of the pot seedlings come from small-scale producers who don't want 
the hassle or the risk of developing the plants to maturity.

"It's something we're seeing more of - you can keep the seedlings in a much 
smaller space," said Cote, adding about half of the province's pot 
production takes place indoors, a proportion that increases slightly each year.

Sometimes you don't even need underworld connections to buy the seedlings.

"Occasionally, our investigations have found that stores that supply people 
with hydroponic equipment will also sell people the seedlings. It's a quick 
way to make cash," Cote said.

The owner of a hydroponic-equipment store in Saguenay is awaiting trial on 
cultivation charges for selling seedlings to an undercover police officer.

Police investigators said organized criminal groups - which largely control 
marijuana production in Quebec - are also beginning to shy away from the 
usual practice of hiring people to supervise "grow-ops."

For years now, biker groups have targeted people who don't have criminal 
records, luring them with promises of easy cash.

In one recent raid, police surprised a 65-year-old grandmother trimming 
marijuana cuttings in the basement of a grow house in the Laurentians.

But a law-enforcement crackdown on illegal greenhouses has prompted 
criminal groups like the outlaw biker gangs to shift away from setting up 
their own operations.

Recently, many have started buying from independent growers - who operate 
with the approval of the bikers - and either sell or export the grass at a 
large profit.
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