NO ONE CAN SAY IT'S BETTER

In the last six years, police have busted more than 250 marijuana grow
operations. The City of Chilliwack has garnered--or "recovered," as
Mayor Sharon Gaetz puts it--hundreds of thousands of dollars from the
owners of grow houses. And dozens of people have been charged and convicted.

But eight years after city officials were first told they had a major
problem on their hands, nobody can say the situation is any better.

Two and a half weeks ago, on Oct. 15, Lower Mainland drug officers
swarmed a rural property in Chilliwack's Eastern Hillsides.

Officers seized 3,500 marijuana plants and 50 pounds of dried pot and
arrested one man at the Hinkley Road residence. They also found booby
traps set to blast thieves with bear spray if they dared enter.

The traps are indicative of evolving strategies used by pot growers to
avoid detection.

Eight years ago, University of the Fraser Valley criminologist Daryl
Plecas declared Chilliwack to be the centre of British Columbia's
marijuana industry. Stunned by the report, council passed a bylaw in
2004 that put the onus on landlords to ensure their houses are not
used by pot farmers.

Six years later, the city has taken more than three-quarters of a
million dollars from 252 grow operations, said Gaetz. Police have
raided 28 grow operations this year, a number about even with last
year's pace, when 34 grow-ops were busted. The busiest year was 2006,
when 50 grow operations were taken down.

And yet, Gaetz isn't bragging that the program has made a
dent.

"I don't know if it's got better," she told the Times. "I know we have
picked the low-hanging fruit. In the beginning of the process, in
2002-3, we were able to get the very obvious grow-ops."

Growers are finding ways to avoid detection and, when their operations
are busted, prosecution. So the decreased number of busts likely does
not reflect a drop in the prevalence of grow houses in Chilliwack. Nor
does it take into account the sophistication and scale of grow-ops.

"We only see the ones we take down," said RCMP spokesperson Cpl.
Lea-Anne Dunlop. Any reduction in the number of busts from last year,
she said, probably has more to do with increased demands on the
Mounties' time than it does with a drop in pot growing.

Dunlop blamed lower property prices for much of the ongoing
problem.

"People are drawn to our area because of rural properties and cheaper
property which equals the fact that they're going to have a greater
return," said Dunlop.

FOR EVERY SOLUTION, A PROBLEM

Next year BC Hydro may begin rolling out so-called "smart meters,"
which can detect tampering and may make it more difficult to steal the
power required to grow thousands of plants.

Gaetz hopes that will help, but she also worries that people licensed
to grow marijuana for medical purposes may be exceeding their quotas
and selling the extra pot on the side. The last two years, privacy
concerns have derailed proposals to the Union of British Columbia
Municipalities to address those issues.

For Chilliwack to stop being a major marijuana farming centre, Gaetz
and Dunlop both say help is needed from the public.

"It's not going to go away on its own," said Dunlop. "Sometimes people
are reluctant to call in and report grow ops, but we really want them
to feel comfortable and confident that if anonymity is what they are
looking for, we're not going to do anything to tip their hat. We just
need that information."

Gaetz, meanwhile, puts the onus on Chilliwack property
owners

"They're never unlucky enough to do that," she said of landlords who
lease their homes to marijuana growers. Five years ago, ignorance may
have been an excuse.

But in 2010, Gaetz says homeowners should know they have a
responsibility to walk through their houses every two months to make
sure everything is as it should be.

"There may be a few naive ones but we've found complicity with a lot,"
she told the Times. "They turn a blind eye and get a huge whack of
money for allowing their building to be used for that purpose."

- - For tips on how to spot a grow-op from a Chilliwack resident who has
a personal experience with neighbourhood grow houses, see page B3 in
the Times' Crime Prevention section.