DRUG GROWERS COST BC HYDRO $10 MILLION A YEAR

Marijuana growing operations diverting electricity are costing BC Hydro at
least $10 million a year.

In the last decade on Vancouver Island,the number of hydro diversions has
catapulted from a few people trying to hide the cost of hot tubs to more
than 100 this year, all for marijuana growing operations. Hydro diversions
for anything other than growing pot are now unheard of and the numbers keep
increasing.

"We're seeing the doubling up of diversions every three to four years,"
said Wolf Presslaur, with BC Hydro's security diversion on the Island.
Pesslaur, a former mountie, said diversions for pot growing began taking
off around 1996. This year 80 per cent of the discovered marijuana growing
operations between Victoria and Port Hardy were diverting power. In 1998
only 25 per cent of busted grow ops on the isalnd had diversions. Presslaur
had no figures for the rest of the province. Growers often rent homes in
middle class neighbourhoods and set up grow operations using divertd power.

A grow operation with a few lights see $1,200 increase on a hydro bill over
60 days is not diverted. A grow operation broken up in November was using
2,000 kilo-watts daily, what an average home uses in two months. Two lights
use as much electricity as a single home, 20 grow lights use as much power
as 15 homes. The risks are blown transformers, interrupted service, and
house fires. Growers risk electrocution and serious burns. "What I'm seeing
on the Island is one house fire a month," said Presslaur.

Pesslaur strongly recommends anyone renting out a home to inspect it
monthly. He said millions of dollars lost by BC Hydro are only part of the
overall costs.

"It snowballs, there's property damage, insurance, and on and on. The only
people who are really impacted are honest people".