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4 - PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, August 25, 1998 "Scugog's Community Newspaper of Choice" Chopper cops looking for pot High tech surveilance boosts police efforts In locating marijuana fields around Durham By Chris Hall Port Perry Star [t's harvest time once again, and Durham Regional Police officers are out in the fields making their rounds. With the growing season for marijuana coming to an end for most cultivators in the area, police are taking to the sky in a helicopter in search of plants. Thanks to a number of donations, members of Durham's Drug Enforcement Unit are able to mount their aerial attack on pot growers. Deputy-Chief Jim Adams said having an eye in the sky 1s an effective tool in the fight. "The officers are going up and doing searches of rural areas with a pilot whom they can direct to specific areas they might have targeted, and others where they just want to have a look around," the deputy chief said Tuesday morning at the Oshawa Municipal Airport, where police launched their campaign. Just last week the RCMP seized approxi- mately 270 plants in the region during a search in a donated military helicopter. And police were hoping for more luck here as Canadian Helicopter Ltd., a company based out of Buttonville Airport, donated the services of a Bell 206 chopper and pilot Craig Nisbet to Durham's Crime Stoppers program for three hours. They seized 159 plants during the effort. Police say the pot has a street value of $395,000. Officers check out wooded and secluded areas, as well as corn fields in their search for the plants, said Deputy Chief Adams. Once officers identify the plants, their loca- tion 1s marked and a warrant is obtained from a judge before it is seized. Pilot Craig Nisbet goes over a few things with Drug Enforcement Unit undercover officer David Taylor. Durham Police hit the skies last week in the northern and eastern parts of the region in search seizure, the crop is destroyed. Last week Durham Police were concentrating on the northern parts of the region and to the east, near Clarington. Officers in the air were joined by cops in a vehicle, who followed the helicopter and helped identify areas in which plants were growing. Police are on the lookout for marijuana, which packs more of a punch than it has in the past, says Sgt. Jack Dancey, an officer with Durham's drug unit. According to the burly undercover agent, THC, the active ingredient in the mar- jjuana, has been increased almost 30 per cent, making the pot grown these days a lot more potent. "THC is what makes it a hallucinogenic; . years ago marijuana only had 1 or 1.3 per cent THC in it; now there's about 28 per cent in some," he said, attributing the increase to different growing methods such as hydroponics, cloning and newer types of fertilizers. "The lower we get to the Thanks to the generosity of Canadian Helicopters Ltd., Durham Regional Police ground, the better chance we and Crime Stoppers were able to make good use of this Bell 206 chopper last week. have of spotting it. It has a The region's Drug Enforcement Unit hit the skies to check out crops and wooded specific color -- almost sil- areas for marijuana. Af } of marijuana, and, they were successful as they seized an estimat- Alter ILS ad $400,000 of the illegal substance. very -- that makes it easy to spot; it is pretty obvious in corn," said Sgt. Dancey. In 1997 approximately 1,500-pounds of marijuana was seized in Durham by police. "Those seizures were both indoor and outdoor and amounted to about $13.5 million (street value); that's a very small percentage of what's available on the street," said Sgt. Dancey. "Our biggest problem is with hydroponics... people start it inside and then move it outside when it gets warmer. It's difficult to find; there's a lot of people with 10 or 15 plants in their back yard. But, just like York (Region), anywhere rural is a big problem." While accustomed to flying around the 2,000-foot mark, helicopter pilot Craig Nisbet said he'd be at lower altitudes during the searches. "This is one of the most common helicopters in the world," he said, standing beside his four-man chopper. "It's ideal for these searches, it can do almost anything they want, includ- ing come to a full stop over an area; you can't do that with a fixed wing aircraft. "Usually you can't go too low with these things but with special police permission, we could go to the deck -- to the top of the trees," he said adding that he has done police work in the past. Happy to see Canadian Helicopters Ltd. lending a hand to police was Crime Stoppers official Jerry Taylor. "I'm pleased to be a part of the working partnership between Canadian Helicopters and Durham Police. It is a proactive approach to control and seek out all drug-related activities in the region," he said. "We are all concerned about the drug problems in our community and Crime Stoppers is pleased to be a part of the program." Asked if the Durham Regional Police Services had ever given consideration to purchasing or leasing a helicopter, much like the Toronto force 1s presently working on, Dep. Chief Jim Adams gave a quick response: "No. It's either one of those things or 50 constables on the street." Museum finds new curator g The Scugog Shores Museum could announce the hiring of a new curator as early as today, says an official with the museum board. While she admits that finding a replace- ment for Dan Robert was a tough one, Karen Puckrin said last Friday that a selection should be made early this week. "The human resources committee has been very busy going over resumes," she said, estimating that over 80 applicants from all over North America expressed their interest in the job. It was advertised on the Canadian Heritage Internet site by the Canadian Museum Association. "From there the top 10 per cent or so was picked out and we short-listed it to 12 before interviewing eight. I think they have probably made up their mind right now, but they're checking references and pay scale. "We're really getting close though; we wanted to have someone to start by mid-to- late summer and we should meet that. We had a number of quality applicants from coast-to-coast in North America. We had some from the southern states, Colorado... but most were from southern Ontario." The search is on to replace four-year curator Dan Robert, who accepted a job earlier this year with a provincial museum in Nova Scotia. "We're looking for someone with acade- mic quality and experience," explaining the job description of the new curator. "The job definitely ranges from one thing to another. Running the museum, organizing the special events, hiring and managing the summer students, doing the programming... Dan fit in so well with everything. "They'll have to manage the museum and develop a budget, set up the staff and buildings and do the promotional work. It's not an easy task." While she is not a member of the muse- um board, Ms Puckrin said she offered her time to the human resources committee because she knew it would be a challenge to select a new curator. "I've had experience with this before: I helped in the process of hiring Dan Robert. I know it is a big undertaking and I'd like to help organize it." The Scugog Shores Museum, located on Scugog Island, receives money from the township through local taxes to cover the curator's salary, while the museum's oper- ating budget comes from a provincial grant. Former curator Dan Roberts