cannabisnews.com: B.C. Marijuana Stokes National Job Boom 





B.C. Marijuana Stokes National Job Boom 
Posted by FoM on October 18, 1999 at 07:30:22 PT
Source: CBC News
Police in British Columbia's lower mainland say there's so much illegally grown marijuana, it's creating full time jobs for people from across Canada. 
RCMP in Surrey say the marijuana pickers are arriving from across Canada because they know they can earn wages of up to $60 an hour to harvest the plants. Const. Vince Arsenault says in recent months he's attended eight busts at which police discovered as many as 15 people in a basement picking pot leaves. Police call this a "dial a harvest" because they often discover phone lists with names of potential pot pickers when they make their arrests. A lot of the pickers came from outside B.C., especially the Maritimes. Once they're done at a residence, they're given a new address and move on," Arsenault told CBC News. In Surrey alone, police estimate there could be as many as 2,000 grow operations; so there's plenty of work at good wages -- $20 to $60 an hour. "It certainly has become a lot more frequent over the last few months," Arsenault said. "There's certainly the lure of the fast cash for them." Others familiar with the marijuana business wonder if police are embellishing their story to create an impression that pot problem is much worse than it is -- and to justify the resources they spend fighting it. "No one cares about this (fighting the pot trade) anymore, we're talking about a cash business that brings $2 billion into B.C.," said former grower Brian Salme. But police say people should care because criminal gangs are behind most of the trade and that, they say, encourages more crime. Posted Mon Oct 18 06:06:28 1999Copyright © 1999 CBC All Rights Reserved 
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