Pubdate: Tue, 13 Oct 2009 Source: Globe and Mail (Canada) Copyright: 2009 The Globe and Mail Company Contact: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168 Author: David Ebner Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) BC DRUG BUSTS NET 14000 MARIJUANA PLANTS In the British Columbia marijuana business, this year's hot, sunny summer has been hailed as the best-ever for growing pot outdoors. For the RCMP, using helicopters to search vast and densely forested regions, the bumper weed crop has led to the seizure of tens of thousands of marijuana plants. The latest bust, announced yesterday by the Kootenay Boundary detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, had 14,130 plants taken from 88 sites in the southern central region of B.C. around Nelson. The police estimated the street value of the drugs at nearly $80-million, based on the individual sale of 15.5-million joints. The wholesale value was pegged at roughly $25-million. Six people were arrested in the two separate investigations, according to Inspector Nick Romanchuk. The RCMP on Vancouver Island have also been busy, seizing about 29,000 plants this year in various busts, a quarter more than the 23,000 in 2008. One study has shown that nearly half of the pot on Vancouver Island is grown outdoors. While B.C. has a reputation as Canada's pot paradise, the country's most populous province, Ontario, is home to an equally big bud business, estimates suggest. Last September, Ontario Provincial Police trumpeted the largest pot bust in Canadian history when they seized 40,000 plants in a cornfield near Pembroke in the eastern area of the province. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D