Pubdate: Tue, 04 Apr 2006
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2006 The StarPhoenix
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400
Author: Janet French
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

MAN ACCUSED OF RUNNING GROW-OP OUT OF ABANDONED SCHOOL

Marijuana Operation Found In Empty School Near Mayfair

A Mayfair man is on trial, accused of running a marijuana grow 
operation in an abandoned rural Saskatchewan school, the fruits of 
which could have netted a seller up to $120,000, according to a 
police drug expert.

RCMP Cpl. Christopher Thomas, once a Saskatoon drug investigator and 
now an organized crime investigator in Ottawa, said a grow operation 
found in an empty school in Mayfair, 145 kilometres northwest of 
Saskatoon, contained enough plants to produce a minimum of 10.5 
kilograms of marijuana. If the bud could stay indefinitely potent, 
that would be enough marijuana for a heavy user to smoke five joints 
a day for 22.8 years, Thomas told a Saskatoon provincial court last month.

"The amount found at this Mayfair school would not be consistent with 
that for personal use, just because of the sheer amount, you wouldn't 
be able to store the marijuana long enough to use it all," he said.

Mark John Evanishen, 34, is charged with possession, production and 
trafficking of a controlled substance, along with firearms charges 
and breaching court conditions.

In early March, an undercover RCMP officer, whose name is protected 
by a publication ban, told provincial court Judge Robert Jackson that 
police had received information there may have been a drug operation 
on the Mayfair area farm of a man who also owned the abandoned school building.

Police arranged for the installation of a device on a power pole that 
measured changes in electricity use at the school and observed 
consistently high power use between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. daily, the 
officer said. Before obtaining a search warrant, police also used an 
infrared scanner to look for suspicious pockets of heat in the school 
and flew a plane over both the school and the owner's farm to look for clues.

After police got a search warrant for the school, officers went into 
the building on the evening of Feb. 23, 2005. The undercover officer, 
who oversaw the investigation, said police found marijuana plants in 
several rooms and Evanishen alone in the building.

"(Evanishen) basically said at that point the marijuana grow 
operation was his, that nobody else was involved, that he had a right 
to have it because some judge said he needed to have it for his 
medical condition," the officer said.

"He also said that he rarely leaves the school," he added. "His 
living environment sort of indicated that. He was very thin at the time."

Const. Mark Ochitwa, an RCMP officer with the Saskatoon integrated 
drug unit and the man responsible for tallying the evidence, later 
told the court police seized 52 small starter plants, 15 mid-sized 
marijuana plants, 23 vegetating, or growing but not budding, 
marijuana plants and 27 budding plants, located in four different rooms.

One room also had a bed, dresser, TV and shelves where Evanishen 
apparently lived, he said. In the bedroom dresser was a shotgun 
loaded with two rounds and 18 rounds of loose ammunition.

Ochitwa cataloged a bowl, razor blades and isopropyl alcohol found in 
the school, which could be used to extract the potent ingredient THC 
from marijuana plant "shake," or the leaves and stems of the plant, 
which contain lower levels of THC than the bud.

Under cross-examination by Evanishen's lawyer, Bill Roe, Ochitwa said 
police did not find any score sheets, money or plastic bags in the 
school -- evidence Roe suggested would be indicative of a drug trafficker.

Thomas testified the school grow operation was a sophisticated one. 
The operator had arranged the plants in such a way to ensure 
continual production, he said. He or she cultivated six parent plants 
from which to produce clippings, dedicated another room to growing 
the plants larger by simulating summertime sunlight using lamps on 
timers, and finally, tricking a third group of plants into budding by 
simulating autumn light conditions. The cultivator also flanked the 
plants with a reflective material that helped maximize light directed 
at the plants. In a report on the bust, Thomas said if all the plants 
were put in conditions to stimulate budding, they could produce a 
minimum of 10.5 kg of weed. Street prices of marijuana vary based on 
the quantities buyers want, Thomas said. If sold by the pound, a 10.5 
kg stash could bring in $60,450. If sold by the most lucrative 
portion, the quarter ounce, the seller could earn $120,000, he said.

Roe attempted to bring doubt to Thomas's evidence by saying his 
calculations were based on assumptions of how well a typical plant 
produces, how long the plant would be potent for and the idea all 
plants would ultimately be forced to bud. Evanishen's lawyer also 
attempted to discredit the undercover offi cer's testimony by 
pointing out much of the evidence he collected leading up to his 
application for a search warrant of the school did not signal 
anything untoward.

The officer agreed with Roe during cross-examination that an 
infra-red exam of the school actually showed the east wing of the 
building where the grow operation was eventually found turned up 
cooler during the scan -- the opposite result of what one would 
expect if a grow operation was present.

Roe had also argued any evidence gathered during the police's search 
of the school should be inadmissible because there was not enough 
evidence for a justice of the peace to have reasonably granted police 
a search warrant. Jackson rejected Roe's application and ruled the 
evidence could be used. Although the defence was to present its case 
Monday, Roe asked for an adjournment to obtain medical records he 
intends to present in his client's defence. The case will be back in 
court June 1. Evanishen, meanwhile, remains in custody.
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