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. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth