marijuana apartment grow-opBut according to the O.P.P., that's not the only problem cops face as they try to uncover and dismantle this 'growing' problem.
Police say organized crime has planted roots in the industry and that's raised things to a whole new level.
And they warn those behind the illegal agriculture are getting increasingly nasty about protecting their investments.
In addition to the usual pistols, cops have been confronted with caches of homemade bombs, machine guns and suspects wearing bulletproof vests or body armour.
What the authorities are calling "pot pirates" often set booby traps to catch intruders.
And some of them are both astounding and potentially lethal.
One, pictured top left, has spikes on the bottom and rocks in the middle. It hangs unseen in a field waiting for an intruder or an officer to come by.
"It's got spikes out the bottom, but it's loaded with rocks and logs. So if someone would hit a trip wire, that would fall on them," O.P.P. Sgt. Kristine Rae tells
CityNews.ca.
"There's one with a shotgun shell that's also on a trigger line that if someone triggered it, it would fire. (See gallery below.) That one in particular would fire into the ground, but there's also one that if it triggered, it would shoot a shotgun blast across the crop. So whatever's in the way is what gets hit."
Even Mother Nature isn't spared the danger.
"There's one where they have a sapling that's bent over and then there would be razor blades and nails stuck in it and it's covered with leaves so if someone hit that trip wire that's what they'd be stuck with.
"There's another one with 2X4's of nails protruding from the bottom and covered over with a light bunch of leaves ... there's bear traps."
But not everything is relegated to lethal force.
In one case a suspect in full police regalia turned up at a pot plantation, trying to rip off a competitor. "He was a pot pirate trying to come in and steal someone else's illegal contraband." (Pictured in gallery, below.)
Rae admits the bulk of deadly traps her colleagues run into are mostly outdoors and are found mainly in the late summer and fall - harvest time for the plants.
But she adds the sophisticated crooks in homes and apartment buildings can easily set up monitors, explosives and even guns that shoot automatically when someone comes in, to ensure their crops are safeguarded.
Rae refuses to reveal how her people avoid the traps, but admits "there's always something new coming along."
Although it was Toronto Police involved in this latest raid, their provincial counterparts are well aware of the scope of the problem.
They've shut down 450 different operations across Ontario so far this year and destroyed nearly 193,000 plants.
And they know there's a lot more out there.
The bottom line? If you suspect your neighbour is actually running a grow op, don't play amateur detective before you call the police.
I
"If people have suspicions about it, don't go in and investigate, because you don't know what you're going to come across, but let our officers go in who are specially trained."
It could be the difference beween a grim harvest or some grim reaping.
Photos courtesy: O.P.P.