BUYING KNOWN DRUG HOUSES A RISK

People who unknowingly purchase homes that have been used in the
illegal drug trade may put their health and their lives at risk,
according to a group of realtors, firefighters and civic politicians.
And there is no certain way of determining whether a home has been
used as a drug house, Kelvin Neufeld, president of the Fraser Valley
Real Estate Board, said in an interview.

"Our goal is to standardize the way they report grow-ops, meth labs or
whatever," he said.

Neufeld said homebuyers may be at risk of financial disaster, serious
health risks and conceivably violent death if they buy a home that has
been used to grow marijuana, manufacture methamphetamines or has been
used to distribute illegal drugs.

After years of work that resulted in a meeting earlier this month of
realtors, firefighters, politicians and police investigators, the
group now intends to form a committee to determine how families can
best be protected.

Neufeld said something like a provincial registry could be the
answer.

He said he was tired of hearing about families making the biggest
investment of their lives only to discover that the homes they
purchased had been contaminated by mould or toxic chemicals.

The cost of making some contaminated homes healthy to live in can be
as high as $80,000 to $100,000, Neufeld said.

In some cases, criminals show up at a house looking to steal drugs,
not realizing it is no longer in the hands of illegal drug producers.

Even if houses are cleaned professionally, some people do not want to
raise their children in a house that was once a base for producing
drugs.

Surrey Coun. Barbara Steele said it's time for the province to become
involved. Surrey has had success combating marijuana-growing
operations since it started using BC Hydro records to alert bylaw
inspectors and fire investigators to unaccounted-for large amounts of
power use, often associated with marijuana-growing operations.
Provincial legislation allowed Hydro to share the information without
violating privacy laws.

City inspectors and fire prevention officers visit the suspect houses
to determine whether the consumption is for legal or illegal reasons.

Surrey fire chief Len Garis ran a pilot project in 2005 that
contributed to the passage of the provincial legislation.

Garis said the program has been a success. He estimates the number of
Surrey marijuana-growing operations declined by 40 per cent in 2007,
the year after the legislation was passed.

Although it is impossible to determine with certainty how many
marijuana operations exist in Surrey, Garis said the number of
hydroponic supply stores that supply growers also dropped 40 per cent
in 2007. The number had remained relatively constant from 2002 to 2006.

Not only that, the number of fires related to commercial
marijuana-growing operations has dropped dramatically, Garis said.

At the same time, there has been a 50-per-cent increase in hydroponic
gardening supply stores in areas such as the Kootenays. To Garis, that
suggests the problem is moving from an area where there is stricter
enforcement to areas of less enforcement.

He said he too favours something like a provincial registry and
standards for remediation.