A GROW-OP IN YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD: IT ENDANGERS US ALL

Often, it's easy to miss the importance of busting marijuana grow
houses. In the newspaper, you read so often about them being raided
by police it starts to feel commonplace.

Chances are, you don't know anyone who has ever actually operated one
and even if there was a grow-op on your street, you probably wouldn't
know it until the police move in.

That makes an article that appeared in Saturday's Review that much
more important.

Back in January, police and fire crews entered a modest bungalow in
the central part of the city and discovered it was actually a grow-op.

The basement was filled almost to the ceiling with plants, baking
under heat lamps; holes had been punched in the floors to allow for
ventilation, and the hydro meter had been bypassed.

The emergency officials had seen it before and ordered the landlord
not to let anyone live there until the place was made fit for human habitation.

The focus of the story, though, was on what happened next: A family
moved in, not knowing the history of the place and apparently, not
alerted to it by the landlord.

Now, obviously, the family is worried the fumes and mould in the
house created by the marijuana crop will prove harmful to their health.

Already, one son has a persistent rash that only goes away when he is
out of the house for extended periods.

He wasn't even the one whose bedroom was downstairs, where the plants
used to grow. That was his older brother, who must be worried about
what might await him in the future.

Eliminating marijuana grow-ops is serious business, especially when
it happens on your street, in your neighbourhood, maybe even in a
house you own if you're a landlord.

If there's one next door to you, your own house is in danger - grow
houses are a major fire risk because of the powerful lamps and the
amount of hydro the operation requires.

Grow houses are more than just a nuisance, as this poor family
discovered - as of last week, they were without a home and out the
several thousand dollars they'd invested in the place they rented and
considered their "dream home."

Grow houses are the scourge of urban living.

Every weapon the community has - more action by police and
firefighters, as well as sentences from the court that are at or
closer to the maximum allowed, than minimum - have to be used.