HIGH TIMES IN WEST VAN

Pot Growers Favour British Properties; Police Kept Hopping

THERE'S a growing problem in West Vancouver's upscale British Properties.

In the first three months of this year, West Vancouver Police have
investigated 16 separate residential marijuana growing operations there - a
400% increase over 1999.

Tuesday night at Collingwood School, West Vancouver Police held a forum to
inform landlords and residents on marijuana grow operations and how to spot
such enterprise in their community.

West Vancouver Sgt. Jim Almas told a small gathering that the frequency of
pot busts in the British Properties is taking place at an alarming rate. A
full 99% of the grow operations are found in rental properties.

As if to underscore that remark, only a few hours before the forum police
raided another grow operation in that locale and yielded a crop of 78
plants. The suspected grower, however, managed to elude police and a
warrant has been issued for his arrest.

Just last month another raid was made on a grow operation in a home
adjacent to an elementary school.

"It is unfortunate, but it's a fact that B.C. bud is a hot commodity in
today's illegal drug market," said Almas, who also linked grow operations
to a rise in property and violent crimes and a decrease in home values.

Along with representatives from BC Hydro, The Insurance Crime Prevention
Bureau and the Landlord Tenancy Branch, Almas detailed the warning signs
that could alert residents to the presence of a grow operation in their
neighbourhood.

For one, most operations use industrial, 1,000-watt lamps to provide heat
for the plants, and growers may seal up the windows with black plastic -
both to prevent light from escaping and to keep out prying eyes.

Almas also said to watch for an unusual degree of condensation on the
inside of windows. The humidity inside a grow operation is typically 60%
and temperatures hover between 80 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit, producing a
prime breeding ground for the type of rot often found in leaky condos.

A faint electrical hum may also be audible, and a sickly-sweet skunk-like
odour emanating from the house is another sure bet.

He said that the presence of newly-posted "beware of dog" and "no
trespassing" signs could also point to suspicious activity.

"These aren't the type of people who want to come and form friendships in
the neighbourhood," said Almas. "They don't want you stopping by and
bringing them apple pie. They want to go completely undetected."

He added that the growers may appear to keep odd hours or not visit their
home for days on end.

The key point he stressed in his presentation, however, was prevention.

Growers will often pay landlords in advance with cash, and may even include
a handsome bonus to secure the property.

He also said it was important to properly screen prospective tenants, ask
for and check up on references and even drop by on moving day to ensure
that the same people that rented the property were actually the people
moving in.

"We're asking you to treat your property like a business," he said.

"You've invested a lot of money and it requires due diligence. Remember
that grow operations affect all of us. Some of you will be affected in your
pocketbooks if you don't follow these steps."

Landlords may not only take the hit there, he added.

"If you have knowledge or allow a marijuana grow operation to be housed in
your rental unit, whether you're the owner, the landlord or property
manager, you can be subject to criminal prosecution along with the growers."

Cpl. Andy Mendel of the forensic unit showed slides that detailed some of
the damage growers had done to homes in renovating the interior to
accommodate a grow operation.

One home suffered in excess of $60,000 damage.

Floors had been ripped up and ventilation pipes routed through chimneys and
sewers, bathrooms were a mess of haphazard electrical wiring and complex
irrigation systems and walls had suffered extensive water damage.

Faulty wiring may also cause fires or serve to overload power transformers,
which could plunge entire neighbourhoods into darkness.

"These people are not electricians," said Almas. "You certainly wouldn't
hire them to do any work in your home."

West Vancouver Police Chief Constable Grant Churchill said that while the
recent increase in grow operations is troubling, he believes there are even
more yet to be detected.

"The number of operations has already doubled and I fear it could be much
more than that," he said.

Churchill said that while there haven't been any serious violent crimes
associated with grow operations in the Properties as yet, the threat is
real. "When we make a raid we find guns and a lot of money and when there
are guns and a lot of money, violence is right around the corner."

He also said that while marijuana cultivation is nothing new to the North
Shore, never before has he witnessed grow operations on such a large scale.
Many labs can haul in more than a million dollars a year from just one
profitable grow operation.

That kind of payoff is proving to be a major motivator for growers to
expand their operations and harvest a larger crop, he said.

Constant biological refining of the plant has also led to an increase in
potency, which makes for a much more addictive substance.

"People have been growing marijuana in small amounts all over the place for
years," he said. "But the marijuana that people smoked 30 years ago was
weed. That's what they called it and that's what it was. Some of it was
real crap.

"This stuff is a serious narcotic. It's not just a soft drug anymore."

Churchill, who also serves as president of the BC Chief Constables
Association, is pushing for stiffer fines for growers. He said that current
penalties for growers are tantamount to a slap on the wrist, with only
small fines levied and jail sentences a rarity.

"We have frustrations with the law as well," he said.

"We're not going to change the international drug trade, but we will drive
it out of West Vancouver," he said.

Mary Lou Hanson, a real estate agent for Royal LePage in West Vancouver,
said that the forum gave her some helpful tips to spot possible grow
operations.

She said that the British Properties is a prime area for such activities,
because of the seclusion of many houses on heavily-treed, well-spaced lots.

"There's a lot of privacy, and that's exactly what these people are looking
for when they come here," she said.

A colleague of Hanson's, Stewart Powell, made the trip from Victoria so he
could be better informed when out in his community showing houses to
prospective buyers.

He stressed that it's a predicament much larger than just British Properties.

"These grow operations aren't just unique to West Vancouver," he said. "We
have the same problems going on in Victoria as well."

Powell would like to see real estate agents receive the proper training on
how to spot potential grow operations. "Within our profession there's not
enough people who recognize what's going on," he said. "The (real estate)
boards should do more training so that we're more aware when we're out and
about.

"In our body we have a thousand realtors. If you have a thousand realtors
who are aware of what's going on and what to look for, that's a lot more
bodies out on the street looking for these situations."