POT GROW OP BUSTS ARE SET TO SOAR

The number of marijuana grow op busts in Surrey will go up tenfold
next month because of a new law that allows authorities to inspect
homes showing unusual power consumption patterns.

RCMP Supt. Craig Callins said the detachment estimates there will be
"500 or 600" house inspections over a period of a few months as safety
inspectors exercise their new powers under the recently adopted
legislation.

Based on the results of a 2005 pilot program in Surrey, about 90 per
cent of those inspections will likely uncover grow ops.

That works out to about 10 times or 1,000 per cent of the current
volume of marijuana grow op raids in Surrey, where a specialist "green
team" of Mounties has been averaging about 50 busts every three months.

Callins, the officer in charge of plainclothes operations in Surrey,
said the ramped-up enforcement effort will start in September.

He was careful to say the new campaign doesn't represent a complete
cure for the perennial problem of illicit indoor marijuana growing in
Surrey, where some estimates place their number in the thousands.

"I don't mean to suggest to anybody that we've got it sorted out, but
it is a priority," Callins said.

He was speaking at a recent public forum in Fleetwood.

The new law was passed by the B.C. legislature in April, and given the
necessary cabinet approval in July.

It was inspired by the Surrey Electrical and Fire Safety Inspection
(EFSI) initiative that ran between March and June of 2005, using a
small five-person team of two officers, two firefighters and an
electrical inspector.

By targeting houses with excessive electricity consumption, the EFSI
team uncovered 119 grow ops in 90 days.

That worked out to 94 per cent of the 126 houses with unusual or
excessive power consumption records looked at by the EFSI team.

The law gives municipalities the power to demand electrical
consumption records from "an electricity distributor" such as B.C.
Hydro.

Homes with unusual electrical consumption records are given written
notice that an inspection will be carried out.

Owners or renters are required by the law to allow a safety inspection
of the premises.

In Surrey, safety inspectors will be routinely accompanied by RCMP
when they make their visits.

If the inspection reveals a grow op, a search warrant can be quickly
arranged.

During the EFSI experiment, each case was processed in about four
hours, including all the research reports and site visits.

According to RCMP estimates, there are 20,000 grow ops in B.C. which
generate $7 billion in illegal revenues.