VANCOUVER COPS ON SNIFF ALERT TO WEED OUT GROW OPS

If you grow it, they will come.

Vancouver police grabbed over 1,200 marijuana plants in 11 separate
grow-operation takedowns on the weekend.

That's a heavy load even for Vancouver, where police have been inundated
with tips, Const. Anne Drennan said yesterday.

"There are just so many out there, and there's so much information coming
forward, that there are times when our members can go out and do multiple
(grow-op takedowns) in a day," she said.

Vancouver police have raided 57 grow ops so far this year, up from 43 by
the same time last year.

In one bust, a B.C. Gas investigation at an East 12th Avenue home turned up
a 140-plant grow op. B.C. Gas called the fire department after finding
toxic levels of carbon dioxide in the house.

A 70-year-old man in respiratory distress was found behind a locked door.

Drennan said the basement furnace ducting had been modified to ventilate a
marijuana grow op, and the ducts "were spewing CO2 throughout the house."

When police arrived, she said , a 51-year-old man in the basement was
"tossing plants and lights into the crawl space under the stairs, trying to
hide the grow operation."

The older man, treated and handed over to police, is wanted in the U.S. for
armed robbery and escaping lawful custody. Both men will face charges here.

Conservative police estimates put the number of indoor grow ops on the
Lower Mainland at about 7,000. Two weekend busts at residences in
Chilliwack led officers to a total of about 500 plants.