A Health Canada referral resulted in Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) seizing approximately 11,475 cannabis plants, and about 75 pounds of dried, processed cannabis were seized by investigators at a Norfolk County location on Wednesday, April 24, 2025.

The OPP Provincial Joint Forces Cannabis Enforcement Team (PJFCET) worked with their Emergency Response, Urban Search and Rescue, Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive Response teams during the coordinated action.

Health Canada had referred the location to law enforcement due to cannabis being grown outside of the federal regulations.

The OPP Organized Crime Enforcement Bureau said Thursday that the investigation is ongoing and charges will be laid if applicable.

The PJFCET is an OPP-led joint forces operation that includes members of the NRPS, Durham Regional Police Service, London Police Service, Windsor Police Service, and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. The PJFCET’s role is to enforce and investigate illegal cannabis incidents and focus on the apprehension of those who produce, sell, distribute, import/export, and use cannabis outside of the parameters of the law.

This is at least the third large seizure resulting from a Health Canada referral in recent months. One occurred in December that resulted in the seizure of 345 kilograms of cannabis and thousands of cannabis plants from an address in Elgin County, Ontario. 

A second took place in February, resulting in investigators locating 4,098 cannabis plants as well as 33.2 pounds of dried, processed cannabis.

Inspections of personal and designated cannabis production sites have increased in the past few years as Health Canada continues its efforts to put more scrutiny on personal and designated medical production licences used to divert cannabis into the illicit market.

There have long been concerns from different levels of government over the potential for misuse and diversion of cannabis from these types of licences associated with high gram totals. 

Health Canada has ramped up inspections of such licences, with more than 300 in the last two years. The most recent annual report also included 20 compliance and enforcement activities (other than inspection) for registered personal and designated production of cannabis for medical purposes, such as conducting seizures and destructions.

Of the 160 inspections of registered personal and designated production of cannabis for medical purposes locations in 2023-2024, 74 were in British Columbia, 63 in Ontario, 18 in Quebec, and five in New Brunswick. In the previous year, the majority of such inspections (115 out of 170) were in Ontario. The year before that, the majority were also conducted in Ontario. 

The federal agency also sends notices to provincial colleges of physicians informing them of health care practitioners connected to numerous high gram-a-day authorizations. In 2020, the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons levied a $15,000 disciplinary action against a Saskatchewan doctor found to be profiting from issuing medical cannabis licences in 2018. 

In 2021, a medical cannabis patient who had been authorized 100 grams a day had a court reject an allowance for the patient to possess up to 1000 grams in public at a time.

In a memo from October 2022, Health Canada said that since it began a new process to address high authorization amounts through the medical cannabis program, the agency had observed a decrease of more than 50% in the number of individuals registering to produce cannabis for medical purposes.

The memo continued that in September 2021, approximately 47,000 individuals were registered with Health Canada. As of September 30, 2022, the number of registered individuals had dropped to approximately 21,700.

Health Canada says it has also refused or revoked more than 1,400 registrations, including over 700 for public health and safety reasons. This represents a 113% increase in refusals and revocations and a 423% increase in the number of refusals and revocations made on the grounds of public health and public safety since March 2022.

While 4,728 healthcare practitioners were associated with registrations made with federally licensed sellers in the previous twelve months, 1,105 were associated with active personal/designated production registrations.

Of those 1,015, there were 233 healthcare practitioners associated with authorizing amounts equal to or above 25 grams per day, and just ten who authorized amounts equal to or above 100 grams per day.

Most (78%) healthcare practitioners who authorized more than 25 grams a day were in BC or Ontario. All who authorized more than 100 grams a day were in BC and Ontario. An authorization of 100 grams a day would equate to a limit of 487 plants at any given time.

Such licences can also be combined to up to four per location, meaning a designated grower with several authorizations could be growing hundreds or even thousands of cannabis plants with the potential to produce hundreds of kilograms of cannabis a year.