POT GROWERS TURN EYE TO UPSCALE LOCALES

The woman appeared on the doorstep dressed in a white nurse's uniform,
holding a young girl by the hand.

The owner of the $600,000 newly renovated waterfront home in Sooke
felt sorry for her and agreed to rent her home to the woman.

"(The owner) was later devastated to find out that within 10 days of
renting the property, the woman set up a large marijuana grow op --
300 plus plants -- in the home. Her friends moved in. There was a huge
amount of damage done to the residence to make alterations for the
marijuana grow," said RCMP Cpl. Brian Kerr. "And it turns out, she
wasn't even a nurse."

Repairs cost $15,000.

"When she phoned me to tell me she was busted, my heart just broke,"
said the homeowner. "I found my whole house was black with smoke
because they were using the fireplace to decrease the humidity. It
stunk. There were holes everywhere in the basement ceiling and damage
to the fireplace and to every room in the house."

Marijuana operations are growing like weeds in Canadian
neighbourhoods.

According to Kerr, head of the West Shore street crime unit, marijuana
grow operations almost always used to be housed in rundown,
nondescript rental properties. Police identified them by their
windows, which were covered up 24 hours a day.

Now, the grow-ops are moving into better neighborhoods, becoming more
upscale. And the scams to rent in better neighbourhoods are becoming
more sophisticated.

"We're finding people are looking for rental properties. They're
putting up a front and hiring people to rent the properties for them,"
said Kerr, who investigates and uproots close to 150 grow-ops every
year.

"They're all over the place. They're in every residential
neighbourhood."

Kerr believes the numbers are increasing because growers can make huge
profits. If they get caught, the penalties are small.

" I was doing a search warrant at this house and the grower said to
me, 'The fine is my overhead. It's the cost of doing business," said
Kerr. "He got a conditional sentence."

Members of the Canadian Police Association went to Parliament Hill on
Tuesday to call for an end to what they describe as lax criminal
sanctions against growers. They estimate at least 50,000 houses in
Canada have been converted into marijuana factories. The police
complain that the public is on the hook for the stolen electricity,
the increased cost of insurance and drug trafficking in their
communities.

Marijuana grow-ops started as a West Coast phenomenon but have spread
across the Prairies to Central and Atlantic Canada, said Staff Sgt.
Marc Pinault, the RCMP's new national grow operations
co-ordinator.

Kerr knows how firmly they have taken root. The street crime unit
recently raided a home in Langford for the fourth time.

"The landlord said this was the fourth set of renters in a row that
had set up a grow-op," said Kerr.

"He thought he was doing a good job reading these people. He felt
comfortable with them. Now he's paid $27,000 to redo the basement. The
growers punched holes in the wall for wiring and venting. They put up
false walls to separate the grow rooms."

Kerr said homeowners should be very cautious when they are
renting.

"At one residence where we seized a grow-op, the growers didn't live
in the home.

"But they had a yard maintenance company come once a week in the
summer to make it look lived in."