cannabisnews.com: Region Ripe for Ontario Pot Growers 





Region Ripe for Ontario Pot Growers 
Posted by CN Staff on January 23, 2003 at 10:20:49 PT
By Lou Michel, News Staff Reporter
Source: Buffalo News 
Pot smokers in Western New York have been catching a buzz in recent years, courtesy of Ontario's flourishing hydroponic marijuana farming industry, estimated to number thousands of illegal growing houses in the Toronto area alone. Despite frequent seizures and arrests by Canadian and U.S. police, marijuana farmers have been secreting the potent pot by truck, car and backpack across Buffalo Niagara's four international border bridges, authorities say. 
Strong demand here and throughout the United States keeps the pot pipeline flowing for this illegal Canadian export that uses a clever system of smuggling. Tons of indoor-grown marijuana stoke a business that has made pot one of the province's major cash crops, with sales of as much as $4 billion (Canadian) a year, authorities estimate. "We like to figure that an average-size house with 500 to 700 plants makes a million dollars a year," Toronto Detective Constable John Belleghem said. "We estimate there are 5,000 growhouse operations in the greater Toronto area." And cross-border trafficking appears to be increasing. In 2000, U.S. customs agents along the New York-Canadian border made 316 seizures, confiscating a total of 379 pounds of pot. Last year, agents made 333 seizures and confiscated 5,106 pounds of marijuana. Motorcycle gangs and Vietnamese organized crime syndicates are behind many of the pot-growing operations in Ontario, according to police. "It's pretty well organized. The gangs hire someone to baby-sit a grow-house. The baby sitter stops by every four or five days to check on the plants," Belleghem said, explaining that the operations are automated for lighting and watering. Rented houses, storefronts and old factories provide the cover for Ontario growhouse operations and give new meaning to the words "income property." Toronto police shut down as many as 10 growing operations a week, but they say it does little to deter dealers willing to risk jail for the chance to make big money. Canadian pot sells for $300 an ounce and can fetch as much as $3,000 a pound in U.S. funds. Two years ago, federal drug agents in Buffalo provided Ontario authorities with a lead that led to one of their biggest hydroponic busts, with the seizure of 4,500 marijuana plants from a former factory in a Toronto suburb. The expansive Ontario marijuana industry exists during a time when the Canadian government is giving serious consideration to softening penalties for possession of marijuana to a fine rather than the possibility of jail time. In 2001, Canada became the first country in the world to legalize medical marijuana, and last year the Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs criticized the pot laws as ineffective. The biggest political headache for Canadian politicians may well be criticism from U.S. politicians and law enforcement officers. Authorities here fear that legalization of marijuana in Canada would lead to even greater amounts slipping across the border into the United States. "Young people might be inclined to go to Canada and experiment with marijuana and bring it back," said Mark Peterson, the resident agent in charge of the Buffalo office of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Shifting to exporting For years, Buffalo was a staging area for distributing field-grown Colombian and Mexican marijuana bound for Canada. But as hydroponic growers became more proficient and demand for their product increased, the tides turned and Ontario became an exporter rather than an importer of pot. Some growers and distributors play it safe by sending over smaller loads of marijuana in anticipation of seizures. That way, they will end up losing 50 pounds of pot as opposed to hundreds, Peterson said. But other Canadian pot suppliers are becoming more daring. "We're seeing tractor-trailers being utilized to smuggle pot with up to 1,800 pounds commingled with legitimate produce and other merchandise," said Peter J. Smith, special agent in charge of U.S. customs in Buffalo. T," But it's not all big shipments. "The individual interested in only 30 or 40 pounds of marijuana can go up to Canada and purchase it," Smith said, explaining that freelance pot sellers are now more common than ever. Part of the increased awareness of Ontario pot smuggling is attributable to closer law enforcement scrutiny of the northern border since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. "We have 400 customs inspectors and 69 special customs agents, almost double what we had before 9/11, and they are able to conduct more searches for people and products that hurt citizens and the economy," Smith said. And there is no question among federal agents that pot, particularly the brands coming out of Canadian growhouses, poses a danger. Ontario's hydroponically grown marijuana, according to DEA agents, packs a wallop not found in the less potent, field-grown marijuana of Mexico and Colombia. "Hydroponically grown marijuana is closer to an LSD trip than to the marijuana smoked in the '60s and '70s. It's definitely not the marijuana of the hippies," Peterson said. The street slang names for this new, high-grade marijuana are telling: "polio," "rocket fuel" and "chronic." "The growers treat it as if it were gourmet coffee or a specialty wine. People will actually travel to Canada to purchase a specific type of marijuana," Peterson said. Local dealers envious Federal agents are not the only ones who have become aware of Ontario's hydroponic marijuana industry. Drug dealers on this side of the border have enviously eyed the high profits and success of their Canadian counterparts, according to authorities. DEA agents four months ago were astounded when they raided an East Side hydroponic marijuana growhouse that rivaled large-scale Canadian operations. Agents confiscated 1,047 plants with a projected street value of $4 million. From the outside, the two-story building at 300 Genesee St. looked like an abandoned warehouse. Inside was a different story. Four rooms contained plants at various stages of development to ensure a "perpetual grow and harvest cycle," Peterson said. Duties for care of the plants were written out on an oversize eraser board in color-coded magic markers. The five young men whom DEA agents arrested even had a to-do list that included installing an electric breaker panel, boarding up windows, constructing a dry room for harvested plants and a central vacuum because "they had a real fetish for cleanliness," Peterson said. And like Canadian grow-houses, the operators were stealing electricity to power it. "Growhouses have to be 90 to 95 degrees and have high-sodium lights on timers. I've seen the lights on for up to 18 hours a day, though the plants do have to rest," said Belleghem, the Toronto drug investigator. A user's perspective But not all area marijuana users puff on pot grown in Ontario or at secret locations here. Many grow their own hydroponic pot, said a 23-year-old Amherst man, who asked that he be identified by only his first name - Ron. He and friends grow about a pound of marijuana every two months in a North Buffalo apartment for their personal use and sell a small amount to acquaintances. "When you grow it yourself, you know what is in it. There are no pesticides or other garbage," said Ron, an Erie Community College North liberal arts graduate. "I've been smoking since I was 17, and my grades in college never slipped. . . . If you can make a positive contribution to society, there's nothing wrong with lighting up once in a while," he said. The U.S. government takes a dim view of Ron's position. Jennifer de Vallance of the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy says that today's high-powered pot is all the more reason for society to enforce drug laws. "We routinely see kids at 10 and 11 years old using marijuana, and it comes at a time when their brains are still developing and they are more susceptible to chemical changes, dependence and addiction," de Vallance said. But the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws says the federal government has no one to blame but itself for the stronger Canadian pot, which has replaced the milder marijuana from Mexico and South America. Successful drug interdiction programs choked off the flow of field-grown marijuana and helped to spawn the Canadian hydroponic marijuana industry, according to Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the NORML Foundation, an educational group that favors pot's legalization. "The government is in no position to complain about potent marijuana when their policies created a huge indoor marijuana cultivation industry in the U.S. and Canada," he said. De Vallance, however, took issue with St. Pierre's argument. "Should we abandon our admittedly successful enforcement efforts at the Mexican border so that we can bring on a flood of cheaper, less potent Mexican marijuana?" she said. "I'm afraid this is the sort of reasoning that perfectly illustrates what we have been saying all along: Marijuana can seriously impair judgment." Source: Buffalo News (NY)Author: Lou Michel, News Staff ReporterPublished: January 22, 2003Copyright: 2003 The Buffalo NewsContact: lettertoeditor buffnews.comWebsite: http://www.buffalonews.com/ Related Articles & Web Site:NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/The Coming Canadian Drug Revolution http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15192.shtmlUS-Canada Border Marijuana Smuggling Uphttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12966.shtmlPlugging a Very Porous Northern Border http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12462.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by Naaps on January 23, 2003 at 22:57:42 PT
This Article is Funny!
Vested interest, DEA agent Mark Peterson, a true believer in allowing youth opportunity to explore their environment, their inner space, laments if Canada legalized marijuana, young people would be drawn north to experience the freedom of choice. The horror… "Hydroponically grown marijuana is closer to an LSD trip than to the marijuana smoked in the '60s and '70s. It's definitely not the marijuana of the hippies," Peterson said. .. This guy should do stand-up.. Ha, ha.. More potent cannabis just means you smoke less to reach the point when you’ve had enough. LSD is not like cannabis, no matter how potent.According to Narc growmaster, Belleghem, "Growhouses have to be 90 to 95 degrees"  Don’t cook those plants! 24 degrees Celsius is best.The best for last, ONDCP’er Jennifer de Vallance, lauds “our admittedly successful enforcement efforts at the Mexican border”, in the face of, "We routinely see kids at 10 and 11 years old using marijuana”. That’s like complimenting the job done sandbagging the front of the house, when the floodwater just came in through the back. One day when it is really about the health and well being of children, the solution won’t be through the present methods of interdiction, incarceration, and propaganda.
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Comment #5 posted by freedom fighter on January 23, 2003 at 17:35:47 PT
Successful enforcement?
"Should we abandon our admittedly successful enforcement efforts at the Mexican border so that we can bring on a flood of cheaper, less potent Mexican marijuana?" she( Jennifer de Vallance of the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy ) said. "I'm afraid this is the sort of reasoning that perfectly illustrates what we have been saying all along: Marijuana can seriously impair judgment." Had to laughed, why then did Denver Colorado just two weeks ago busted someone with 750 pounds of mex. weed? I, a cannabis user, seriously do consider that her judgement is probably quite beyond any help!ff
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Comment #4 posted by John Tyler on January 23, 2003 at 14:13:36 PT
Tripping on cannabis?
"Hydroponically grown marijuana is closer to an LSD trip than to the marijuana smoked in the '60s and '70s. It's definitely not the marijuana of the hippies," Peterson said.  How does this guy, a DEA agent from Buffalo, know what cannabis from the 60's and 70's was like as compared to the "so called" super weed from Canada compared to LSD. You can't get that information from a reading a study or from some office memo. You would have to have been there to try them all yourself in order to make a valid comparison. So unless this guy done all this, which I strongly doubt as he is a DEA agent and they are not allowed to sample the wares, I must conclude that he does not know what he is talking about.    
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Comment #3 posted by Binky on January 23, 2003 at 13:06:25 PT
How Much?
I really have a hard time believing that BC sends over 90% of it's product south. Why does Canada have the upper hand on this obvious lucrative industry? I was always under the assumption that the farther south you go the warmer it is hence a better growing season.
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Comment #2 posted by Truth on January 23, 2003 at 11:06:09 PT
Stronger pot.
I would like to comment on this L. S. D. pot. I know four folks that went to Marc Emery's Toker's bowl last year. As contestents of the bowl they were given 24 samples that weighed in about a gram and a half each. These samples came from the very best breeders, it was their very best product, as they wanted their pot to win, the newest, the best. Must be the stuff that Walters is warning us all about.Well- These contestants smoked up their ounce+ each in the four days of the contest and they never passed out, never puked, never wrecked, never punched anyone, never argued, nothing. Even though they were in a foreign country they had no problems at all. If this pot is so much stronger how come these folks had less problems then three beers would have caused them. John Walters is a liar.And yeah, they said the pot was great. 
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Comment #1 posted by Truth on January 23, 2003 at 10:51:46 PT
yeah, right
This article is so full of lies it should be filed under B. S.
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