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Cops patrol with helicopers to spot outdoor grow-ops
By Hempology | August 22, 2007
Victoria Times Colonist, BC
August 22, 2007
Matthew Gauk
Police going green with pot eradication program
Police are going green with this year’s helicopter-aided marijuana eradication operation, which began across Vancouver Island yesterday.
Illicit backwoods grow-ops damage the environment, said Cpl. Greg Cox, Island District RCMP communications officer.
For example, streams are often diverted to the grow-ops to provide for convenient watering, he said. Native plants get trampled by people carving trails in and out of the sites.
“But it’s also the chemicals used in the production of these operations,” said Cox. “There are growth-enhancing chemicals [and] pesticides being introduced into pristine lands. Then, there’s the garbage at the post-production sites, the empty or half-used bags of fertilizer and garbage bags, all that sort of thing, the stuff that’s left over after they’re done harvesting.”
The Wilderness Committee weighed in on the issue, too, with Victoria campaign director Ken Wu pointing out that his organization is always concerned about non-native species such as scotch broom, holly and purple loosestrife.
“Marijuana is not a native species to Vancouver Island and B.C. forests,” Wu said with a laugh.
“Now, they’re not knocking down whole tracts of forest, like they do in pure agriculture, to grow marijuana. My understanding is when it’s grown outdoors, it’s grown in patches in the forest, in which case you’d eliminate the understory and the native plants and the animals that live on those native plants in those areas,” said Wu.
Cox said that the size and location of the grow-ops varies greatly but that some sites are “quite sizable.” In 2004, a police, RCMP and military task force on marijuana found a grow-op near Port Hardy that was about the size of two football fields, according to officers.
This week, the Integrated Marijuana Eradication Team will move on outdoor grow-ops, which are often deep in the bush on Crown land, using intelligence collected beforehand.
The team, which consists of members of the Saanich and Victoria police departments, Island District RCMP and the Canadian Forces, uses military and police helicopters from Comox. The military contribution helps them get to grow-ops in otherwise inaccessible locations, Cox said.
Last summer, the team found and destroyed 16,500 plants from more than 200 sites.
Cox said the team’s work won’t be limited to Vancouver Island and could include some of the Gulf Islands.
He added that the operation will continue as long as is necessary to eradicate all of the grow-ops they know about or come across.
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