Pot grow-op busts are way down in Alberta, with most of those smoked out now legal gardens, say cops.

They also seized 13,067 pot plants province-wide last year — a whopping 234% decrease from the 43,606 confiscated in 2012, said the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams (ALERT).

The vast majority of the cannabis plants seized last year — about 86% — were in the zone south of Red Deer.

While those numbers are dramatic enough, the majority of public tips to police now lead to medicinal marijuana gardens, reflecting the increasingly murky, fluid nature of the war on cannabis, said Staff Sgt. Keith Hurley.

“We’re seeing more permitted grows than un-permitted grows, the number of illegal ones are drastically below the permitted operations,” said Hurley, a Calgary Police Service officer in charge of ALERT’s southern Alberta green team.

Many of the legal operations backed by medicinal permits are unsafe for electrical or mould reasons, said Hurley, who also suspects they’re often fronts for illegal, commercial harvesting.

But because of their legal documentation, there’s little he can do, including take measures to comfort concerned neighbours, he said.

“Imagine how frustrating it is for us to tell people our hands are tied, there’s not much we can do,” he said, adding much of his concern over cannabis is now confined to growing safety.

He said large numbers of plants being grown at a single location with multiple permits and the widespread use of prescriptions from the same physician lead police to believe many of the officially legal grow ops are covers for criminal activity.

“It’s strange when we find a permit grow, they’ve still cleaned out the whole house — why would they do that if there’s nothing to hide?” said Hurley.

“It’s definitely suspect.”

During U.S. alcohol prohibition in the early 20th century, medical prescriptions were widely used to procure recreational booze.

Grow-op search warrants executed by ALERT — which says it conducts about 95% of that activity in the province — dropped from 105 in 2012 to 60 last year.

He acknowledged his unit’s work against marijuana is amid a backdrop of spreading legalization in the U.S., a vow by Ottawa to follow suit, increasing medicinal use and a growing tolerance for the drug across the continent.

Hurley wouldn’t dispute suggestions the war on drugs is a losing one but insisted his officers’ efforts haven’t waned.

“If it’s the law, then the enforcement resources will be there, until such time that changes,” he said.

“Do I have a vested interest? I didn’t make the regulations.”

But he said his 6-7 officer unit hasn’t received increased resources in recent years.

Earlier this year, Ottawa’s law banning medicinal pot users from growing their own cannabis was struck down in the courts, which gave the federal government six months to craft new legislation.

Hurley said that move will likely complicate his work even more, but added he doubts full legalization will come to Canada any time soon.

“I can see some kind of decriminalization...it’d really be nice just to have some clarification on the issue,” he said.

BKaufmann@postmedia.com

on Twitter: @BillKaufmannjrn