Police did not disclose information about what they found. Bob Joseph, who is on site daily with a 10-officer team and helicopter to help locate harvest hot spots in cornfields, said he expects similar finds to last year and previous years. Last year, RCMP found 5,589 plants in Middlesex, Elgin and Oxford counties and 1,966 in Lambton, Essex and Kent counties. Another 12,525 plants were seized in Huron, Grey, Perth and Wellington counties. They also say dollar figures announced by police in drug seizures are often debated in courtrooms and are much lower than police claim.
Police say they are only enforcing the law.
They also maintain there is a connection between marijuana and hard drug use. Van Doren said the eradication program makes a difference. Sure it has an effect, but there's no exact science on it,'' he said. If we didn't do any eradication there'd be much more marijuana, hash and hash oil on our streets. The plants are grown in cornfields, along riverbeds and in dense bush.