GONE TO POT

A Firsthand Look Into The Remnants Of A Marijuana Grow Operation
Nestled In A Family Neighbourhood

It's an unusually sunny October morning as police dressed in blue
hazmat suits bustle in and out of a white bungalow on a quiet North
York street.

Passersby watch half-interested, as high-powered fans are dumped onto
the front lawn, along with a growing pile of 1,000-watt light bulbs,
a generator and half a dozen waist high bags filled with marijuana
plants.

An intrigued kid walks by, stops, and asks to take a photo of the
crime scene, but an officer good-naturedly tells him to keep walking.

It's an all-too common scene for Drug Squad Detective Sergeant David
Malcolm, who along with his team, are working to gather evidence
hours after their latest indoor marijuana grow-op bust.

"It's a large one as far as the size of it," Malcolm says, surveying
the lawn. "We're talking approximately 800 plants, which has a
conservative street value of $800,000.

"It's been in business for some time, I'm going to say several
months, if not probably a year."

Inside, officers sift through the ruins of the three-bedroom rental,
gathering more evidence. In one corner, an officer saws locks off the
doors.

In the garage, officers note a large rectangular hole carved into the
cement wall, allegedly used to pass equipment and product from the
car into the home without raising the suspicions of neighbours.

"They'll drive right into the garage, close the door so nobody sees
them, then they access the house with everything they need to grow
the marijuana that way," says Detective Constable Mike Bowmaster,
standing in the garage.

"In essence what they're doing is wrecking the foundation of the
house."

In many ways the corner home is like any other.

The living room is furnished with a black-and-white dining room set,
and an entertainment system. Stuffed animals sit on couches next to a
window.

But as Bowmaster explains during a tour of the home, the items are
likely just a ruse, a home staging with a shady purpose.

There is little evidence that anyone actually lived in the home on a
daily basis, Bowmaster points out, noting cobwebs on the television
screen, and a sparse amount of clothing hanging in one bedroom. Some
food sits in Tupperware dishes in a refrigerator, next to chocolate
bars. One of the few items still standing in the mess that is the
kitchen are cans of Budweiser lining the windowsill.

A bedroom at the rear of the house displays the home's real
use.

The floor is covered with pots and loose soil, where police
discovered 310 marijuana plants in varying stages of growth. Hanging
from the ceiling are five makeshift lamps. The lamps remain covered
with mylar plastic and tin foil, reflective material that helps
create optimal spring-like growing conditions. Excessive moisture in
the room has caused mould to grow in one corner and the paint has
begun to peel.

Bowmaster says illegal growers take a big risk when they bypass the
home's hydro meter to steal electricity, pointing to a network of
exposed wires that run through several rooms.

"The risk for these to catch fire is huge," he says. "This stuff is
not put together by a licensed electrician."

Other dangers lurk in the darkened basement.

In a dingy bathroom, a garbage can full of an unknown liquid sits in
the bathtub.

Large bottles of chemical fertilizer sit in another room, bags of
soil piled to one side. More wires, tightly wrapped together with zip
ties, are affixed overhead.

Once all the evidence is collected, the front door is boarded
up.

Now it will be up to the landowner, or Toronto's municipal licensing
and standards to decide whether the property can be remediated. If it
can't be fixed, the home will be bulldozed to the ground.

Outside, Malcolm has one message to landlords: protect your
property.

"They're looking for homes that are rental properties exactly like
this and they'll rent it, take advantage of the homeowner and then
they'll do this to the interior of their home," he said.

The homeowner takes the hardest hit, although they are rarely
involved or even aware that their tennants are running a grow-op.

"But have they done their due diligence in protecting their
investment? I'm going to say in this case, no."