NEW BYLAW WOULD COMPEL LANDLORDS TO CHECK THEIR PROPERTIES FOR DRUG PRODUCTION

LANGLEY - Landlords might be the new front-line soldiers against pot
growers under a proposed bylaw.

Four yearly inspections by a landlord should be enough to disrupt the
careers of would-be marijuana growers in Langley.

That's what Township councillors are hoping, after they sent a new
anti-pot bylaw to public hearing.

The bylaw will require landlords to inspect properties at least once
every three months to check for methamphetamine labs and grow operations.

Because it takes about four months to grow a crop of marijuana from
seedling to harvest, the inspections should catch growers in the act,
or drive them away. If a landlord does the regular inspections and
discovers a growing operation, he or she is off the hook for any police costs.

The bylaw also requires property owners to tell any potential future
buyers that the property once held a growing operation or drug lab.

Councillor Steve Ferguson called it a "the good, the bad and the
ugly" bylaw. It should separate good landlords -- those who already
check their properties -- from the bad absentee landlords who allow
the drug production to go on, he said.