HOW MANY LEGAL POT GROW-OPS ARE IN SURREY? THE FEDS WON'T TELL

A beating death in Seattle, a grow rip in
Chilliwack, and at least nine homes in Surrey 24
times more likely to catch fire are putting the
heat on federally licensed growers of marijuana.

Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis first raised the
alarm with city council last year, telling local
elected officials the federal government won't
release the locations of what he believes are dangerous dwellings.

Surrey's Electrical Fire Safety Initiative
(EFSI), the city's grow-op detection team, has
found nine medically licensed marijuana home
plantations in the city. Four had to be shut down
permanently because of serious electrical safety
problems and the remainder were temporarily
closed while electrical issues were fixed.

Garis has been prodding Ottawa to notify police
and/or the municipality about the locations of all medical pot licensees.

So far, no luck.

Health Canada will only give Garis the number of
licence holders in the country. It won't break
the numbers down by city or province.

About 2,800 production licences have been issued
to medical marijuana growers in Canada.

Garis said of the six Lower Mainland
municipalities participating in the EFSI program,
there have been 50 medical grow-ops found.

It's become ridiculous, the numbers are exploding
from what I'm told, in terms of the number of
licenses that are being issued,=94 Garis said
Tuesday. =93These things are flowing into our
neighbourhoods. Regardless of whether they're
legal or illegal, the question is do you want
them grown in your neighbourhood?=94

He notes the difference between a medical grow-op
and an illegal grow-op comes down to a licence.
Medical grows are just as dangerous to the community, Garis says.

They're not regulated, they=92re not permitted,
there's no safety inspections =AD there=92s no
difference (in the structure) between a legal and
illegal grow,=94 Garis said. =93That's the bottom line.=94

Health Canada allows the medicinal use of
marijuana for several conditions, including
severe pain or muscle spasms from multiple
sclerosis, spinal cord injury or disease, pain or
nausea from cancer or HIV and seizures from epilepsy.

Earlier this week, a Chilliwack home containing a
licensed marijuana grow-op was invaded by thieves
after the pot. And in Seattle this week, attacks
on homes with medical grow-ops are being blamed
for a shooting and a fatal beating.

On Monday, Garis will give Surrey council an
=93update on the state of affairs=94 on this city's
grow-op problem, which will contain a section on the impasse over medical gr
ows.