Growers' neighbours sniff and snitch

Grow-ops have become the scourge of many neighbourhoods -- and residents
are fighting back.

Sixty-five per cent of calls to CrimeStoppers are from callers tipping
police to suspected grow-ops, says CrimeStoppers co-ordinator Sgt. Don
MacPherson.

"That means the community is aware of what's going on and wants them out of
their neighbourhood," MacPherson said yesterday.

He said residents resent the amount of traffic the houses generate, the
types of people that run them, the potential for serious crime, the smell
associated with growing indoor marijuana and the fire danger.

But police are swamped with tips and can't possibly act on every one, he said.

Surrey RCMP's drug section recently estimated there were up to 4,500
grow-ops in that community alone.

And the industry has become so lucrative that some growers are building
houses ready-made for use.

A raid in a Chilliwack house last week netted 1,700 plants.

And 10 homes -- each worth about $350,000 -- in an upscale Langley
neighbourhood were raided in the past 15 months, netting a total of 3,000
pot plants.

Neighbours had alerted police to the smell and late-night comings and goings.

Some city councils are passing bylaws to try and smoke out the owners of
grow-op houses.

Richmond is considering a bylaw requiring landlords to acquire business
licences and do property inspections.

And in West Vancouver, grow-ops have been reduced dramatically in the past
two years under a "rent-watch" program that encourages neighbours spotting
anything suspicious in rental homes to alert police.