EDMONTON–As marijuana goes corporate in Canada, some police officers are making the move from busting grow-ops to protecting them.

Rick Martens, head of security for the 800,000-square-foot Aurora Sky cannabis production facility just south of Edmonton, was a police officer for 26 years before retiring as a sergeant in 2012.

When Aurora Sky began construction near his home he said he applied for its top security job, saying he was more intrigued than anything.

Now he’s protecting thousands of kilograms of weed at one of the world’s biggest grow-ops.

“I get to be with the people that, under some circumstances, I probably would have arrested. But now it’s becoming legal, and some of these people are actually very good people,” Martens said.

Martens said he learns something new about cannabis every day and the people he works with are the “pearl” of his new job.

It can be a point of contention, however, with friends and family.

“My wife is still a police officer, so around our table we have some very dynamic discussions in relation to cannabis for example being a gateway drug — that was the perception for years and years,” he said.

“A lot of police officers are drawing a fine line in the sand and trying to figure out exactly which side they’re on. But the bottom line is, it’s going to be law, so you’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem.”

Martens said the security challenges he deals with at Aurora are nothing new, thanks to his experience as an officer. He worked in numerous units during his time with the Edmonton Police Service, including surveillance.

At one point, he was tasked with raiding and taking down illegal marijuana grow-ops.

“We had to go into houses and, under search warrants, bag up multiple plants and grow-ops where there’s lights and … all kinds of stuff that ended up having to be seized,” he said.

Martens said wouldn’t necessarily feel differently about busting up illegal grow-ops if he had to do it over again.

While every household will be allowed to grow four plants come Oct. 17, the basements and warehouses he raided involved dozens of plants and were sometimes linked to other crimes.

“The types of calls that I was involved in, they would still be illegal,” he said.

Edmonton police have continued shutting down dispensaries since legalization was announced.

Last December, EPS announced they had arrested several people in separate raids of two facilities selling marijuana, including a storefront that required customers to show a medical cannabis prescription before buying.

In February, EPS arrested five people in connection to three cannabis operations, including a storefront on Whyte Avenue.

Dwain Barat, a security specialist with WeedMD who works at the company’s Aylmer, Ont., production centre, was a former police officer in Ontario and spent part of his law enforcement career as an investigator.

He busted several grow-ops in his time, but said he always had a soft spot when dealing with minor marijuana possession cases, when officers are allowed to exercise some discretion.

“I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t broken up a lot of fights with people that have been under the influence of cannabis. Alcohol has always been something that I’ve seen as more of a tyrant,” he said.

“I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot in that sense.”

A chance interaction with medical cannabis gave him a whole new perspective on the plant.

He was on duty when he came across a man in his twenties, who he had dealt with before, carrying pot.

The man claimed it was medical marijuana for his uncle, but Barat was skeptical, so he offered him a ride to his uncle’s home.

“Basically I said, ‘OK, Jack, prove to me what you’re telling me,’ ” he said.

The young man gave the marijuana to his uncle, who had Parkinson’s disease, and Barat sat with them as the man’s uncle consumed it.

“I saw it with my own eyes. Within 20 minutes it was a complete turnaround for him. I was shocked, I was almost disbelieving to some degree, how well it worked for him,” Barat said.

“At that point, it tugged at my heartstrings a bit. It really did. And I’ll remember for the rest of my life, because that was a pinnacle moment that I appreciated it on a different level.”

He left law enforcement in 2011 to care for a sick family member, who also turned to medical marijuana successfully.

He worked as an EMT for four years before running into WeedMD’s master grower and striking up a conversation that led to a job offer.

Barat began working his way up the company ranks, starting as a cutter and moving to client services, where he heard every day from medical marijuana patients who said the drug was changing their lives for the better.

Eventually, he worked his way into security.

Barat said he knows other officers who have started their own marijuana companies, and said views among current and former officers he knows seem to be shifting as legalization looms.

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The Canadian government will legalize the drug for recreational purposes on Oct. 17.

“We’re all grown-ups, we see it for what it is and we understand the benefits now. I think there’s more and more officers that are understanding it,” Barat said.

“They’re doing some reading on their own, they’re being educated.”

Aurora’s security director for all of Canada, Randy Jozwiak, is a former Calgary fire captain who served with the city’s fire department for 32 years before retiring.

For the last four years he has been stationed at Aurora Mountain, the company’s first facility, located north of Calgary.

Having had negative experiences dealing with pot at his previous job, he was hesitant about supporting the budding industry but said he’s been enlightened since starting his new job.

Jozwiak said he’s proud of the work he does at Aurora.

“When I was on the fire department the only time we ever dealt with drugs was when we found them in homes with house fires, or when we assisted the police in lab raids,” he said.

“I wasn’t too sure about cannabis when I first started at Aurora, but as I learned more and more about cannabis and the effect it has especially for medical, I became more and more positive.”

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Christian Leuprecht, a security expert and political science professor at Queen’s University and the Royal Military College of Canada, said hiring former first responders can act as additional insurance and bolster a company’s stock price.

From a security standpoint, he said it can be valuable to have someone who knows the local crime landscape.

“If you’re looking to have somebody who can basically assess vulnerabilities proactively, and you have somebody who’s spent 20 years investigating local crime in that municipality and understands the local dynamics, they might be well placed,” he said.

Cannabis production facilities have to follow strict security guidelines under Health Canada’s Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR).

According to Aurora Cannabis Inc. spokesperson Heather MacGregor, all of Aurora’s facilities have state-of-the-art surveillance technology with multiple layers of protection, including video surveillance, laser perimeter motion sensors, intrusion detection, and optical and pressure sensors.

All video footage is kept for two years.

At Aurora Sky, no one can enter without donning protective gear and swiping key cards behind someone who has security clearance.

“There are security devices on ventilation systems and every square foot of the facilities are monitored to identify everyone entering and exiting at all times, day and night,” MacGregor said.

She said the company specifically seeks out people with experience as first responders to run the complex security systems.

“Their training as first responders and law enforcement is just so critical for them to be able to do the job we need them to do effectively.”

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