Pubdate: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2004 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Author: Gary Dimmock, The Ottawa Citizen Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) THE SECRET GARDEN Hidden in Basements in the Most Innocuous Looking Suburban Homes, Ontario's Marijuana Grow-Ops Are Low-Risk, High-Profit Ventures Worth Billions On Jan. 22, the senior gardener arrives home to find that his outlawed crop has finally started to bud. He has just finished clearing the laneway of snow, and made time to pitch in on his neighbour's. It is minus 17 with strong winds from the southwest. Inside, and 12 steps down into the basement, he walks past the furnace and into the secret garden. There, it is 28 degrees and fans are whirring. Standing a few blocks from a nursery school and across the street from an Ottawa park, this four-bedroom family home is part of Ontario's indoor marijuana industry. It is a cash-crop business that police across the province estimate to be worth $12 billion a year. (That's bigger than the country's wheat and dairy industries.) And the chances that police will come knocking between now and harvest are slim. Ottawa has fewer drug cops than before amalgamation (26 in 1992 and just 17 today according to the city), and police say the number of grow-operations in Ottawa is overwhelming. The police realize that marijuana is a soft drug, and that most people would like to see it decriminalized. Still, they routinely demonize growers for their links to outlaw bikers and Asian gangs, and with little prodding lug out the guns seized from grow-ops for press photographers. They'll also talk up hydro theft and public safety -- notably that the chances of a grow-op home catching fire are 40 times greater than any other on the street. But not every grow-op is linked to bikers or Asian gangs. Not all grow-ops are firetraps, and not all growers put immigrant families with young children at risk by enlisting them as fronts. We rarely hear the stories, and never see their crops before the raids. In fact, the Citizen never entered this grow house and describes it only as it was depicted on a videotape. "It's a side business and I really like gardening," the small independent grower tells the Citizen. He holds an honest day job, has a common-law wife, and his handling of weapons is limited to video games. When he's not working or gardening, he's usually playing Xbox Live. He's clocked close to 500 hours, with 140 hours on Rainbow Six alone. In the evening, he finally removes his headset, which he uses to talk to online teammates around the world in their anti-terrorist wargame. It's time to tend to the plants that grow hydroponically in neat rows from industrial-sized plumbing pipes. This low-risk, high-profit "side business" or "paying hobby" is located in a secret room in the basement -- a fully contained separate room, built specifically for a four-metre-by-six-metre hydroponic garden. From the outside, when the door is closed, it looks like a wall. It houses up to 50 plants. Inside, the grower is mimicking and controlling nature, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The crop-sitter lives upstairs. He keeps a close watch on the operation in exchange for "extra dough and free pot" (he says he smokes an ounce every three weeks). He pays no rent and is the only person who lives in the grow house. The sitter stops at the edge of the crop, reaches out to touch a plant and gently thumbs its top bud, or flower. "It's a nice little crop ... It's about four weeks to magic time (harvest)." If this small crop yields good bud, the grower says, he will make about $18,000. (The RCMP, however, would estimate this crop at a staggering street value of $500,000. They calculate value by estimating that 40 plants yield between 40,000 and 100,000 joints that would sell for up to $5 each. But for a single plant to yield enough bud to roll 2,500 marijuana cigarettes would be extremely rare and dealers, for the most part, don't sell by the joint. And if they did, it would take roughly 208 hours to roll 2,500 joints.) This low-risk, high-profit garden starts with these crucial ingredients: A nondescript house with an absentee landlord and start-up money. "You need to look for a landlord who never drops by and about $12,000 in start-up equipment. And pick a house that no one would suspect ... If my landlord ever dropped by I would have already dropped this place," the grower says. This home, set in a high-traffic neighbourhood, looks like any other. The police drive by the house at least 10 times a day. While it is true that Ottawa police have fewer drug officers since amalgamation, Insp. Doug Handy says co-operation with other law-enforcement agencies has never been better and the drug unit is supported by patrol officers, including six patrol constables enrolled in the unit's mentoring program. But tonight, the grower is making plans to reinforce security -- not against the police, but against thieves. "The way I always looked at it is, how many cases do you hear of people getting convicted for growing their plants? It's always 'charged,' you never hear about the sentencing. It's not a big deal. You can get a bit of jail time, but you'd have to be a loser or doing it in a very organized way, doing stupid things like killing people, stealing your hydro or hurting your neighbours. As long as you take precautions, there's no way," says the 29-year-old grower. - - - - The grower steps into another room, the size of a walk-in closet, and unveils the gene stock: "These are the moms. This is where I get all my little clones." This current crop began as tiny clones, all snipped in mid-November from two bushy mother plants that had been grown from mail-order HempStar seeds. This gene pool allows a perpetual grow period. By the time the adults are ready for harvest, the clones -- grown in root cubes -- are ready to be transplanted in the main grow room. In the main room, each plant, suspended in clay pellets, grows from mesh-bottomed pots set every 10 centimetres along industrial plumbing pipes. These pipes, or grow tubes, are supported by two-by-four beams laid across the cement floor. He tricks the plants into non-stop growth by using metal halide and pressurized sodium lamps to replicate the closest thing to a full spectrum of light. "These plants need multiple spectrums of light. A regular light-bulb does not cut the mustard," says the grower, who learned the trade in British Columbia. Rubber hoses run into the main room from an automated feeding tank and into each of the growing tubes in the garden. The hoses, which run the length of the tubes, support tiny sprinkler heads that are set between every second plant. Liquid nutrients, fertilizer and water are pumped through the grow tubes. Because the tubes are positioned on a slight decline, gravity drains the tubes back into the feeding tank. The feeding machine was fashioned using an 80-litre Rubbermaid storage box, a pump and some standard plumbing supplies. This home-built grow-op doesn't leak, and unlike grow-ops that use soil -- commonly used by Asian gangs -- there's no mould or dirty mess. By 5 p.m., the traffic outside is picking up. Inside, the grower mixes the last of the day's liquid feed by hand. "They don't need to grow anymore; they need only to grow fruit," he says. To boost the buds, the part of the plant that is smoked, he uses and does not cure it for boosted potency. While not high-grade, his clients say bud produces a "creeper buzz." And after moving his product, he also moves his operation. On March 7, the clones are growing fine and fast, but the grower, no longer comfortable with this location, has decided to pack up shop. This way, he keeps his operation on the move -- and in turn, seemingly one step ahead of detection. In the move, he loses 50 per cent of his cloned cash crop -- an acceptable loss, and one that comes with the business. "I don't do this for big cash. I hate buying pot. I think it's wrong, when it grows on trees. You shouldn't have to buy anything that grows on trees." And if the law ever catches up to him? "I honestly don't care, if it's going to happen, it's going to happen. I'm growing something I like, and it's another story to tell my grandkids." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake