LARGE RANGE OF ERROR WITH GROW-OP INSPECTIONS

Editor:

Your article on the Richmond grow-op bylaw program contained some
interesting facts and assertions. I found it particularly telling that
89 per cent of the grow-op inspections in 2008 revealed no evidence of
grow-ops. That's a pretty large range of error if the point of the
inspections is to find grows.

Of 54 houses searched, 48 homeowners were totally innocent of
wrongdoing yet suffered the indignity, hassle and stigmatization
associated with a search of their private residences. And this is a
program the city wants to revive?

The assertion that I found most interesting was that the city
considered this program a success. The evidence of success appears to
be a decline in the number of high-power-using homes which is assumed
to mean a decline in the number of grows. The alternative explanation,
and the more likely one, is that growers have gone back to stealing
power to avoid detection. Stealing power, by the way, is the most
dangerous part of indoor growing. I find it ironic that the city's
"safety oriented" program is actually driving people into less safe
practices.

The bottom line is that getting rid of residential grow-ops is only
going to happen when we come to our senses, legalize and regulate the
marijuana industry and put the growing into the hands of farmers and
legitimate businesses rather than black-market cultivators.

Kirk Tousaw

Vancouver