Pubdate: Thu, 07 Nov 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 Part 1: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n2022/a05.html Part 2: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n2021/a10.html FAMILY-SIZE PLANTATIONS HOUSE POT ON THE PLATEAU This is the third of four stories examining changing attitudes toward marijuana in Quebec. A companion report may also be seen today on Global television's evening and late-night newscasts, and canada.com is sponsoring a readers' debate on the subject. Pull back the heavy flannel blanket and there they are, basking under 1,500-watt bulbs. The effort at concealment is half-hearted, but even if you didn't peek into the makeshift greenhouse under the stairs, the tangy smell is a telltale sign marijuana plants are nearby. It's a small-scale plantation for now, just a pair of adolescent cannabis stalks still a month or so away from harvest. We're in a non-descript ground-floor apartment in the Plateau, a few minutes walk from the neon and bustle of St. Laurent Blvd. A woman we'll call Trudy is in the midst of setting up her grow operation, one of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of similar installations that have put Quebec behind only British Columbia among Canada's biggest pot-producing provinces. She figures her little garden will yield enough marijuana for her own consumption, as well as some extra to sell to friends and make a few bucks. "This is definitely a mom-and-pop thing. I'm not trying to get rich doing it, although that would be easy enough, I suppose," said Trudy, a petite woman in her 30s with a mischievous smile. Countless apartments, bungalows and derelict buildings in and around Montreal are used as "grow-ops" by enterprising farmers ready to supply an ever-available market. Despite the hundreds of operations busted each year in Quebec and the concerted law-enforcement effort at controlling pot, its production seems to be on the rise. Police report that whereas the province used to import marijuana from other countries, now Quebec pot is so plentiful that it's being exported south of the border, where it can fetch as much as $5,000 U.S. per pound. "Since 1993, when Quebec really started exporting pot on a significant scale, we've seen a 700-per-cent increase in the number of marijuana seizures," said Inspector Fred Foley of the Surete du Quebec's organized-crime squad. A recent survey conducted by SOM Recherches et Sondages for The Gazette and Global TV found 40 per cent of Montrealers (or about 800,000 people) have smoked marijuana. And 32 per cent of those who have smoked have done so in the last six months. "We're asking a question on something that is illegal," said SOM analyst Guy Larocque. "That 40 per cent would tell someone over the phone that they've smoked is revealing." The heaviest users are young people; about six in 10 respondents 18 to 35 have tried it. There is no class distinction among smokers (47 per cent of those earning less than $15,000 admit smoking; that figure is 58 per cent for those making more than $75,000), and the more schooling you have, the more likely you are to have smoked. The poll also found a large majority of Montrealers feel the war on drugs has failed to control marijuana. According to the most recent SQ statistics, 316,812 marijuana plants (about four tons' worth) were seized in the first nine months of this year. A total of 528,799 plants were destroyed by police in 2001. There aren't any statistics for the city of Montreal for 2002, but in 2001, federal statistics indicate 601 incidents of marijuana cultivation were reported in this city. Drug investigator Roch Cote, a Mountie who works with the Wolverine anti-gang task force, remembers his surprise as a team of cops burst into a small bungalow in the lower Laurentians recently and stormed into the basement, guns drawn. "There was this little old lady wearing her gardening gloves, and she was doing cuttings off a huge marijuana plant," Cote said. "She said she was just looking after the plants for a friend, and she did not even know what they were." Predictably, police didn't believe her. She was hauled off to the local jail and charged with cultivating marijuana. The woman, a grandmother in her mid-60s, later admitted to police she'd been recruited to look after the grow-op. Cote said it's a typical story: "The biker gangs will recruit young people, retired people or people who are unemployed or need money, and pay them to water their plants, look after the crop and make sure no one takes it." Investigators from the RCMP, SQ and city police all say they've noticed a recent trend: organized-crime figures are pressuring "independent" growers into selling to them. That can mean threats, beatings or even setting fire to rival grow-ops, a more and more common phenomenon. One of the ways criminals track down unaffiliated growers is through hydroponic supply shops, some of which have been infiltrated by outlaw groups, Cote said. Also, police are noticing that the large-scale outdoor plantations of the past are being replaced by indoor operations and smaller outdoor fields. "You used to see 1,000 plants in fields or forests. Now you might see 50 plantations of 20 plants. That way, they don't lose as much if we spray the field (with pesticides)," SQ Sgt. Jean Audette said. Police also say their investigations have been hampered by court proceedings, where the nature of their inquiries and their eradication methods are revealed in testimony. Organized crime has updated its methods accordingly, the SQ's Foley said. If the cops check power meters for unusually high consumption, the crooks get generators. If the SQ gets airborne infrared sensors to identify suspect buildings, the growers find sophisticated ways to defeat them - like making a building within a building. So why is this province a major centre for pot growing? RCMP drug expert Sgt. Mark Pearson said part of the story is the natural spread of marijuana cultivation, which started becoming a large-scale phenomenon on the West Coast in the early 1980s. "Since then, technology and know-how have spread eastward across the country," said Pearson, who has worked in drug sectors across Canada. Other reasons, said the SQ's Audette, result from Quebec's geography. "The St. Lawrence Valley is a good place for agriculture. We're close to the U.S. border, and the increase in production pretty much mirrors the rise in prominence of the criminal gangs in the province," he said. Police also complain that penalties for pot growers are fairly lenient. There's also the profit motive. Drug investigators estimate the average yield of a single cannabis plant is about 2.5 ounces of pot (or 70 grams) per harvest. Some clandestine hydroponic growers boast of yields up to 400 grams per plant. In outdoor operations, there's one harvest a year. In hydroponic ones, growers can get three crops annually. Police experts estimate 200 plants can yield about 30 pounds of pot per crop. At a street price of $2,500 per pound, that represents $75,000. In the 1,837 grow-ops the SQ investigated last year, the average seizure netted 400 plants. It's Friday night in the Plateau: cloning time. Trudy's friend, whom we'll call Alan, is snipping cuttings from the plants, dipping the stems in a rooting solution and planting them in earth. Two plants will soon become 10 or 20 or 50. Trudy doesn't have a criminal record, works full time and shares the apartment with her dog and calico cat, whose fondness for nibbling on pot plants prompted her to jury-rig a chicken-wire fence in the crawlspace. Police say the vast majority of pot plantations are run by organized crime, although there's no easy way to measure the contribution of cottage-industry growers. The Surete's Audette says people who supply pot are, knowingly or not, part of the problem. "The market exists; like it or not, it is controlled by organized crime, and anyone who is involved in that market, whether they realize it or not, are supporting these groups," he said. Trudy and her friends say they have no ties to organized crime. They have no interest in selling pot to school kids, nor would they peddle the stuff on the streets, she said. "It's just a plant. I smoke pot, so why not grow it?" Legalize It? Some Pros and Cons Readers of last week's story on the legal debate over marijuana offer their thoughts on legalization and decriminalization. The opinions come from the Canada.com Web site. Enough! Legalize it outright and take charge of the quality control, distribution, and profits (not to mention the taxes, replacing those lost because of people who quit smoking cigarettes). Don't legalize weed - not until my plants are done. I plan to sell them to your kids and make a fortune off it while the government could easily be regulating it and taxing it! And this time I plan on putting in some different chemicals with harmful agents to make your kids dumb! Get the picture? Do not legalize marijuana. I have a 16-year-old who has put us through hell the last couple of years because of his smoking pot. For who think it doesn't affect teens or that it's no big deal, try talking to a parent who has a child using it. Why should someone have to smoke pot to feel good? The world is a beautiful place and life is precious. Why ruin such God-given jewels? Go to school, get educated and leave marijuana to grow by the road like the other killer weeds. All drugs, including heroin, should be legalized, controlled and taxed. The war on drugs has cost a fortune in money and human lives, but has stopped no one from taking drugs. Worse, it has spawned a huge black market, making criminals like the Hells Angels rich and powerful. - --- MAP posted-by: Alex