INFANT TAKEN FROM GROW-OP

Police Investigating Home Invasion Find 984 Plants

Yet another child living in a marijuana grow-operation has been turned
over to child-protection officials.

The one-year-old was discovered on Friday in a house in the
21100-block Dewdney Trunk Road in Maple Ridge where Mounties found 984
plants, dried marijuana and growing equipment.

Ridge-Meadows RCMP Cpl. Bernie Smandych said the grow-op was
discovered when police investigated a home invasion at the house.

Police were called when the home invaders broke down the back
door.

The residents ran out the front door and the home invaders fled before
police arrived.

Smandych said it's "common" to find kids at grow-ops.

She said the child is always turned over to the Ministry of Children
and Families.

Two other children were seized the same day at a Richmond
grow-operation.

A three-year-old and a two-year-old were living in the home in the
10300-block Bridgeport Road where police found 600 plants in four rooms.

A study released last year by researchers at the University College of
the Fraser Valley revealed children were found in one in five grow-ops
dismantled by Vancouver police between 1997 and 2003.

Darryl Plecas, chairman of the college's department of criminology and
criminal justice, said the figures are only available for Vancouver
because they kept the best records but: "We have reason to believe
it's no different than in any other place."

Plecas said grow-ops are very dangerous places for children. The
study, which he co-authored, found the average grow-operator has a
13-year criminal history and an average of seven prior
convictions.

The dangers include the risk of fires due to hydro tampering, the
presence of weapons and pesticides and breathing problems associated
with mould from condensation.

"It's an extremely hazardous situation on a number of fronts," he
said.

"It's just amazing that thus far a child hasn't been killed. There's
so many of these which have fires."

Plecas said the courts and child-protection officials have to take
the issue of kids in grow-ops seriously, as they would any incident of
child endangerment.

Mark Sieben, director of regional operations for the Ministry of
Children and Families, said no specific statistics are kept on how
many kids are taken from grow-ops but said it's not unusual for it to
happen.

Social workers have to arrange care for the child, either by the
ministry or other family members, because the parents are usually
arrested, said Sieben.

There is also a risk assessment of the family home and the child is
only returned if it's to a safe environment, he said.

He said the issue of kids in grow-ops isn't "too dissimilar from other
circumstances that we become involved in."

"It is a big issue and more work is being done specifically on risks
to children associated with [grow-ops]."