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Pot Raids Draining Resources, Police Say
Jeff Gray | The Globe and Mail | 07/13/2005

Toronto Police say they are taking down more marijuana grow operations this year than ever before, but Chief Bill Blair warns that the exploding number of pot busts is draining resources.

"I don't think we are satisfactorily on top of it," Chief Blair said yesterday after a Police Services Board meeting. "We know that it's a problem that continues to grow."

According to a report presented to the board yesterday, police broke up 169 grow operations this year as of June 1. The tally represents an 18-per-cent increase over the same period in 2004.

Earlier this year, former chief Julian Fantino had requested funding for a multimillion-dollar grow-op task force. The plan included a shopping list for high-tech equipment, such as an additional $40,000 infrared device to detect the excessive heat grow-ops give off.

But that plan went nowhere, given the city's financial constraints. Instead, the police went ahead with a 15-member ad-hoc marijuana squad -- called Project Growstop -- using drug squad investigators and police from the divisions in suburban northern Scarborough, North York and Etobicoke, and existing staff and equipment.

And while they have had some success, it has come at a cost. Arrests for other drug offences have plummeted, sinking 77 per cent in the city's east end and 20 per cent in the west end because drug squad officers were reassigned to the grow-op squad, the police report says.

Chief Blair said he is in talks with federal and provincial officials about how to combat the problem.

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smotpoker

Instead, the police went ahead with a 15-member ad-hoc marijuana squad -- called Project Growstop -- using drug squad investigators and police from the divisions in suburban northern Scarborough



Hey i live in northern scarborough, those idiots should find the guy who stole my bike before they go looking for weed