cannabisnews.com: Sowing The Fields of Fear





Sowing The Fields of Fear
Posted by FoM on September 13, 2000 at 08:18:42 PT
By Nicolas Van Praet, The Gazette
Source: Montreal Gazette
Marijuana-growing criminals terrorize Quebec's farmers.Golden corn towers high above the farmer's head as he plows through row after row of stalks looking for the invader crop, the one that has kept him on edge for a decade. The bottom leaves of the corn plants have been torn by a recent hailstorm. The farmer's own life has been torn, too - by the invader plant, its growers and the continuous siege they have imposed on his property. 
He knows the plant is there, smack in the middle of his corn, because he's seen it. A 15-metre strip of corn plants were pulled to make room for the usurper. But now, in the denseness of the green stalks, he can't find it. He slips out of sight. Then I stumble upon it. Perfectly hidden, shielded from the wind, smelling skunky-sweet. Twenty-seven waist-high marijuana plants, straight in a row, 30 centimetres apart. The invader. Quebec cornfields have become the favourite camouflage for marijuana traffickers. For more than 10 years, farmers in parts of southern Quebec have become the unwilling victims of poaching - never knowing who is coming and going on their land. Intimidated, they are hostages in their own fields. And the situation isn't getting better. Rob is not this farmer's name. He doesn't want to give his real name because, he says, the poachers are unpredictable. He's right. In the past, the more dangerous growers have primed farmers' fields with booby traps to protect their pungent crop. They have rigged razor blades on plant stems and trip-wired rifles with fishing line. This year, growers have dug holes in the ground and laid primitive metal traps that could rip off a leg. Around harvest time, they have threatened farmers, warning them not to squeal or their barns will be burned, their children hurt. A farmer was beaten up in Sainte-Cecile-de-Milton. Growers come and go as they please, and they get close to farmers' homes. Real close. Rob has planted knee-high soybean around his farmhouse this year to make sure the illicit growers don't put in marijuana. That's what happened last year, when he found 40 pot plants in a ditch 150 metres from his house. Smoking a cigarette at his kitchen table, the father of three says he's not against marijuana. In fact, he's in favour of legalizing it. At least then, he says, the bullying would stop. "The problem is, you're never sure someone is in the field or not," he says. "You fear for the children. You're always watching. You feel you're not alone in your fields." Every year for a decade, Rob has found marijuana in his fields. One year, there were 1,000 plants. In the beginning, it didn't bother him. But then he ran into strangers on his property, and they didn't have a reason to be there. Two men often parked their pickup truck in his field. One would stay by the truck, the other disappear into the crops. "I asked them what they were doing," Rob says. "They answered, 'Walking the dog.' I never saw a dog." Quebec police are tackling a problem of unknown scope. And they don't have the means to do it, farmers and politicians charge. The Surete du Quebec and the RCMP are working to sniff out pot-growing operations. This year, however, they are shifting their energy away from searching fields. Instead, they're focusing on finding the biggest operations. Police have identified at least one major plantation guarded by heavily armed individuals, though they won't say where. "We want to hit the criminal organizations co-ordinating the growing," said Sgt. Martin Morin, operational chief for the southeast region of Quebec - the heart of marijuana-growing in the province. Police have set up phone lines that anyone can call to flag a pot plantation. But many farmers hesitate to call because they wonder whether it's worthwhile, given the light punishment convicted growers receive, said Linda Dufault, secretary of the Quebec Farmers Union in Saint-Hyacinthe. "It discourages them," Dufault said. "They think they will put their farms in peril if they snitch." The union, which represents Quebec's 45,000 farmers, recently asked the provincial and federal governments to stiffen penalties, which rarely exceed $2,000. That sum, the union argues, is a petty business expense for growers who make up to $1,000 from the flower buds of each outdoor plant. Farmers like Bernard Brodeur, who's also a Liberal member of the National Assembly, want to call in the army to help. "When police discover a pot plantation, they go crazy with the media, blowing up the importance of the discovery to show they're working on it. But it's really a miniscule portion of the whole. It's show, it's publicity." Seizing and destroying marijuana is easy, said a spokesman for the Quebec Cash Crop Producers Federation. "They could find it all and destroy it all. That won't solve the problem. Next year, growers will be at it again, this time with a different strategy." Police say the common strategy this year is to move plantations to clearings in wooded areas, to avoid easy detection by air. By plane or helicopter, the green marijuana is a snap to spot against the brown and gold of corn. Some Quebec farmers are on the verge of bringing out their hunting rifles and confronting the trespassers, said Yvan Loubier, the outspoken Bloc Quebecois MP for Saint-Hyacinthe. "They'll want to take justice into their own hands," Loubier said. "You can't live in worry like this indefinitely." Loubier, who worked for the farmers' union for six years and was put under 24-hour police protection last year after he spoke out against the poachers, said the uneasiness farmers feel has changed. "Last year, no one wanted to come out and say they had any on their property. This year, people have more courage." Rob is convinced, however, that some farmers are growing their own. He figures a quarter of the agriculturalists in his town are cannabis producers. And, he says, they're selling it. "Sometimes, it's people you know quite intimately. You don't want to call police." If Rob's claims are true - and marijuana advocates say they are - criminal biker gangs aren't the only ones growing dope in the province. "As in the days of outlaw Jesse James, it's fashionable to blame the bikers for everything," said Marc (Boris) Saint-Maurice, head of the Bloc Pot, a federal political party that aims to make marijuana legal. Although the U.S. produces most of its own marijuana, its law-enforcement agencies say imports from Canada have grown tenfold over the past two years. The fat profits to be made in drugs are luring more and more youth into growing and trafficking, said Gilles Beauregard, the former mayor of Saint-Joachim-de-Shefford, a town near Granby whose abandoned fields are favoured by marijuana growers. Locals know who the drug dealers are, he said. "These guys don't have normal jobs. They just grow and watch. When you see a guy that's not working with two beautiful sports cars in his driveway, you know what they're up to." Published: Wednesday 13 September 2000Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)Copyright: 2000 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.Contact: letters thegazette.southam.caWebsite: http://www.montrealgazette.com/Forum: http://forums.canada.com/~montrealRelated Article:Hell's Angels Are An Army in the Middle of a War http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6031.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on September 14, 2000 at 09:58:06 PT
Outlaw corn!!
  Imagine how silly the reverse situation would appear...  "I know they're out there. Somewhere, in my field of green cannabis sativa plants, there's sneaky dirty criminals, looking for a place to grow their illicit cobs. Two acres of it, in the middle of my fields of pot, would grow enough corn for every man, woman, and child in the state to pack a bowl full of popcorn. Fortunatly, anybody caught smelling of salt and butter will face immediate arrest under the Federal Government's zero-tolerance stand, nicknamed Operation Copcorn."
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Comment #2 posted by Kanabys on September 13, 2000 at 10:48:17 PT
I agree Doc
That is the solution. I've said it for years, just "alcoholize" Cannabis. Treat it like you do booze and MOST of the problems will disappear. Not all, but most. If the antis are doubtful, why don't they just try it for a short time and see. They could always revert to the status quo. Oh, I forgot, they're not that smart.
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Comment #1 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on September 13, 2000 at 08:48:16 PT:
Malheureusement, la Guerre continue.
I feel sorry for the farmers who are afraid, and hope that their fear can be assuaged. The surest way to do this is to end the War on Drugs. Then, even cannabis cultivators who do not own land may wish to rent a plot, instead of plotting.
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