CATCH THE CROOKS - THAT'S ALL WE NEED

Marijuana grow-ops -- in particular, the indoor garden-variety
grow-ops so often found within residential neighbourhoods across
southern Ontario -- are a blight upon the landscape. They are illegal
because the cultivation and sale of marijuana is illegal; they are a
health issue cause of mould buildup; they are a safety hazard because
of the threat of fouled, jerry-rigged electrical-bypass systems that
can lead to deadly fires; and they are an enormous nuisance for
police because they often coexist undetected in neighbourhoods of
backsplits and bungalows, blending into a landscape of pets,
preschoolers and unwary families.

But grow-ops do exist -- and will continue to exist -- because they
are enormously profitable. So much expensive product can be generated
from within a single dwelling that marijuana-growing criminals often
will not hesitate to buy and use high-end, high-priced houses as
camouflage for their activities.

Into this backdrop comes a recent report out of Guelph in which Rob
Davis, chief of the Guelph police force, said that his department now
has a website posted that lists every former grow-op dwelling in the
city. The website, Chief Davis suggested, "is a proactive way to keep
our citizens informed of where this activity has been happening in
Guelph and to help ensure that the unsuspecting citizen . . . is not
buying one of these places."

The list includes 22 addresses in and around Guelph where police
found grow-ops over a six-month period this year. Police in London
publicize a similar list; police in Waterloo Region do not -- and we
would suggest that they need be in no hurry to duplicate the Guelph
initiative. Here's why:

Once a house is identified as a grow-op -- with the owner/renter
charged and dealt with by the courts -- police involvement
effectively comes to an end. The house, typically, is either sold off
into the market or, in the case of a landlord caught unaware of a
tenant's pot-growing activities, it might be renovated to bring the
house up to standard for a subsequent tenant.

Whatever standards might need to be met for either resale or tenancy
are those established by a municipality; they are the responsibility
of the landlord, the potential new buyer or renter, and the realtors
who may be involved. In the absence of continuing illegality, there
is no role here for the police to continue to play.

This is one of those cases where good intentions can create
regrettable outcomes. Police in Guelph do not publicize the addresses
of every house in the city that may have either faulty wiring or
dangerous mould -- and to make public the addresses of dwellings
where a pot-growing crime may once have taken place just doesn't pass
the test of close scrutiny.

Citizens want one thing from their police -- to investigate crimes,
to catch criminals and to bring them to justice. They don't need a
public website to identify an address where a crime was once
committed. And they don't need whole neighbourhoods -- and
law-abiding citizens' home values -- adversely affected as an
unintended consequence of law-enforcement zeal.