Pubdate: Tue, 08 Jul 2003
Source: Nelson Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2003 Nelson Daily News
Contact:  http://www.nelsondailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/288
Author: Darren Davidson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

SUNNY, AND STONED

Salmo RCMP bust indoor/outdoor grow show, warn public to keep their noses 
open for planters who are moving marijuana operations into the great outdoors

Nelson and area gardeners aren't the only ones headed for horticultural 
pursuits in the sunny outdoors as of late.

Marijuana growers are too.

"It's that time of year," says Salmo RCMP Corporal Neal Cross.

"Now's the time of the year when (indoor) plants start getting a little 
larger and are being moved outdoors. It's going to be picking up for sure."

On Canada Day. July 1, Salmo Mounties rounded up over 400 pot plants in a 
raid on a home on Rose Road, just west of Salmo.

They also seized hydroponic lights, fans, water pumps, timers and other 
equipment used in an indoor grow-show. The growers had also planted some of 
the crop outdoors.

"It was in the process of being moved outside."

Cross says some pot planters who've started crops during the colder times 
of spring usually start shifting their plants outside in early June.

"Whenever the weather starts getting nice and staying nice, when we stop 
getting frost."

Cross says police are still investigating the Rose Road bust.

"We have some people identified as owners of the residence, and we're going 
to be following up with them."

This is the second marijuana bust in two weeks for Salmo RCMP. Two people, 
a male and female in their 40s, are facing charges after Mounties searched 
a home in Salmo. They found a large number of plants, grow-op equipment and 
a number of firearms.

"They were all long-barreled fire arms that weren't secure," says Cross.

Police are still waiting on word as to whether the rifles and shotguns were 
registered.

Cross says the public should keep an eye - or a nose - open for potential 
growing operations, indoor or outdoor.

"Any residence that have windows covered up with plastic blocking out the 
light, condensation and that sort of thing." Cross says strong scent makes 
outdoor pot plantations easy to find.

"They put out an odor that is quite different from other plants out in the 
wild."
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