WEEDING OUT DRUG HOUSES

To put a dent in grow ops and meth labs, it's time to consider the
problem a public safety issue and get away from relying on a 'failed'
court system, said Surrey fire chief Len Garis at a forum held in
Langley City on Thursday.

"B.C. Bud is potentially a $12 billion industry. If we take away
organized crime's ability to earn money, we win," Garis said to the
more than 100 realtors, politicians, bylaw and police officers who
attended the half-day forum put on by the Fraser Valley Real Estate
Board at the Cascades Convention Centre.

"We are turning the tide but as the drug industry adapts to our
strategies, we must find new tools," said Garis. "If we sit back, the
whole thing will re-energize itself."

GROW OP BUSTERS

Since the Surrey fire department began its public safety inspections,
that look at B.C. Hydro consumption records to root out homes using
high amounts of electricity, it has seen a more than 50 per cent drop
in grow ops, he said. It was a problem the Surrey RCMP had a hard
time tackling, hampered by the need for judge-approved warrants and
other restrictions.

Because of what the justice system requires of police, processing of
each criminal case has gone up two-thirds, says Dr. Darryl Plecas who
is the RCMP research chair of the University of the Fraser Valley.

"It used to take [police] nine steps to process a marijuana grow
operation. Today, it takes 64," said Plecas who was one of six
experts to speak at the forum. "It used to take one hour to process
an impaired driver. It now takes five hours," said Plecas.

"If we want to help efficiency, we must demand efficiency in the
courts. They are not accountable and this tragedy has gone on too long."

A general consensus at the forum was prevention and deterrence will
have to come from other avenues than the courts.

Since getting the Ministry of Children and Families involved with
seizing children living within grow homes, the number of kids in
these residences has plummeted, said Garis.

"We started with one in four grow ops had kids, then one in 15. Now,
in 2008, it's one in 50," he said.

Despite lawsuits filed against Surrey fire department's inspection
team, Garis will continue inspecting and shutting down power to homes
suspected of illegal drug operations, he said. Langley Township has
disbanded its inspection team, pending the outcome of a Supreme Court
challenge against it.

"We're not giving up," Garis said.

Plecas said while organized crime is behind these illegal drug
houses, it is the 'wannabees' running the operations.

"It' is the rinky-dink wannabees that are doing these grow ops and
they are going to go to jail in [droves very soon]," predicted Plecas.

PROTECTING BUYERS

At the forum, realtors called for action to protect home buyers from
purchasing former grow ops and meth labs. Two years ago, the FVREB
put together a committee to look into the challenges around houses
ruined by illegal drug activity. There is no proper way for a
potential home buyers, realtors or property managers to obtain a
house's history, the committee found out. Realtors want to
standardize how illegal drug houses are documented with each
municipality while also making that information easily accessible.

HIT WHERE IT HURTS

Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender said the City just fined a woman
$10,000 under its drug/premises bylaw after police found a large meth
lab in a garage of a house on 56 Avenue.

In that case, the female owner allowed her son to rent out the house.
He rented it out on a month-by-month cash basis to a meth cook.

"The cost to the community was in excess of $100,000. Neighbours had
to be evacuated, the costs for policing, fire, Hazmat.

"The woman asked for leniency because she didn't know her son was
doing this but it's unacceptable danger to the community," said Fassbender.

Most communities in the Fraser Valley have established a bylaw that
allows each municipality to recoup emergency costs incurred to clean
up a grow op or meth lab.

"In Surrey we have a lot of out-of country landlords who just don't
care [about who rents]. So we fine them," said Surrey City councillor
Barbara Steele.

Fassbender wants the focus on civil forfeiture of homes to hit
organized crime in the pocket book.

He told the crowd, it is a waste of time to try and go after
organized crime through the 'stupid' court system.

Chilliwack Mayor Clint Hames suggested the RCMP should create a new
integrated team dealing solely with forfeitures of crime.

"We spend 12 per cent of our policing budget on integrated police
teams, like homicide and dogs.

"This should be another team. A detachment as small as ours could
never handle that sort of thing," he said.

While privacy issues are 'the enemy' of most of these initiatives,
points out Plecas, there are ways to accomplish lofty goals like this.

Garis said part of the privacy issue is taking the fear from
government stakeholders.

He pointed to B.C. Hydro believing it wasn't able to provide customer
records because that breached privacy laws.

But once B.C. Hydro was educated that the information was in the
interest of protecting public safety, the records were handed over.

HORROR STORIES

The Residential Tenancy Act has hampered landlords so much that one
tenant won the right to keep a suite from being rented to anyone else
while he or she was in jail, said one realtor at the forum.

A realtor from Vancouver said he found a grow op in his tenant's
suite and attempted to evict the tenants.

He ended up having to give the damage deposit back and provide moving
costs because the renters weren't convicted of a crime.

A possible way around these nightmares is establishing a rental
contract stating that illegal activity is cause for eviction.