KILLER GROW-OP SOLUTION RAISES EYEBROWS

A B.C. entrepreneur says he has found a seedy way to kill marijuana
grow operations -- protecting landlords from hundreds of thousands of
dollars in potential damage repairs.

But a spokesman for Victoria landlords said he'd have to be
convinced

the product both works and is safe before he'd recommend it to his
members. A plant expert thinks the idea is unworkable.

"It sounds, frankly, too good to be true," Al Kemp, CEO of the Rental
Owners and Managers of B.C., said Monday. "If this would work I think
someone would have come up with it before."

Kelowna resident Michael Glendinning said treating houses with his
hemp pollen-dust, No Grow, causes viable pot plants to go to seed and
be rendered useless.

The spores are spread through the house by the central heating system,
a service No Grow provides for $500 a year.

Kemp said he spoke to No Grow principals about a year ago and wasn't
convinced about the product's safety.

"If this is something that is so toxic to marijuana plants, is it
something we really want to put into a system within a building where
people are living?"

The product, which will be sold in Vancouver in about 10 days, is not
available in stores but only through No Grow installers.

The cost is $39.95 a month, which Glendinning said is cheap insurance
compared to the cost of repairing structural and humidity damage from
grow ops that use extreme light and heat for plants to thrive. The
company also puts up stickers on treated houses, which Glendinning
said would serve as a deterrent to tenants interested in starting grow
ops.

A University of B.C. botanist, Douglas Justice, has some reservations
regarding the service.

"It might work very nicely in a lab in a single room or something like
that," he said. "If you're sending it through a furnace you're going
to have all sorts of ductwork that the pollen is going to deposit
itself in. My guess is that it won't have the desired effect."

The pollen would have to be so thick it would cover the furniture and
walls, possibly creating breathing problems for some people, said
Justice, assistant director of the University of B.C.'s botanical
garden and centre for plant research.

"It would look like hell," he said. "Not only a real mess but I think
a waste of money."

Glendinning defended the product as non-toxic, all natural and safe.
But he said it has not been tested or certified by any health agency.

"They told us what the guidelines would be but we haven't given them
this product and said test it. That would cost lots of money that we
aren't willing to spend. We know the product," he said.