B.C. GROW OPS CREEPING EAST

VANCOUVER -- As Vancouver drug squads crack down on marijuana growers,
more B.C. operations are setting up shop in Ontario, police say.

Under pressure from city "growbusters," marijuana grow ops have
declined in Vancouver over the past five years, Vancouver Police
Inspector Kash Heed said during a news conference yesterday. But he
said pot operations have sprouted up in nearby municipalities and are
migrating to Ontario.

"To coincide with the decreases in Vancouver, the increase is felt
outside of Vancouver, and Ontario is now experiencing some of our
problems," he said.

Detective Don Cardwell of the York Regional Police's drugs and vice
squad in Ontario likened the trend to any other business venture.

"Simply put, they're going to expand their markets and the eastern
market looks like one of the areas they've chosen," Det. Cardwell
said. "It's usually based out of B.C. and going coast to coast, so of
course we're in touch with [Vancouver police]."

In 2003, Insp. Heed, then the commanding officer of the drug unit,
sent two sergeants to Ontario to offer suggestions on how police there
could deal with the rise in grow-op activity.

"They wanted to talk to us and [hear about] what we're doing . . .
because other law-enforcement agencies confirmed the same growers we
had here were showing up in Ontario," Insp. Heed said.

"There were a few that came out here. They're the ones around Peel,
York [Region], Hamilton-Wentworth, that area there, and I believe
Durham," he said.

Vancouver Police statistics released yesterday indicate that officers
raided 23 grow houses in 1991, seizing pot valued at about
$2.6-million. More than 3,000 operations have been removed since,
totalling $750-million worth of marijuana.

Stopping those operations is becoming a challenge as growers adapt to
police techniques. "They're not stealing the hydro any more," Det.
Cardwell said. "The odds are they're harder to detect and are just
going to be detected a lot less."

Insp. Heed, a 28-year police veteran, never even suspected that a
grow-op had been operating for months just three doors from his own
Vancouver home. He found out from a neighbour's tip.

Dangerous wiring and overloaded electrical outlets commonly used in
crop-harvesting equipment are a fire hazard, and mould spores and
pesticides used in grow-op houses also pose a health risk.

In recent years, marijuana growers have bought homes in quiet suburbs
to grow their crops. Some growers place children's toys on the lawns
so as not to appear suspicious.