NV HOME ON RCMP POT WEBSITE

Grow-Op Listings Will Be Publicly Posted for 1 Year

A house in a residential neighbourhood off Mount Seymour Parkway where
police discovered almost 900 marijuana plants this summer has become
the first home on the North Shore listed in the RCMP's new marijuana
grow operation website.

North Vancouver RCMP searched the nondescript house at 3356 Garibaldi
Way under a search warrant on June 30, and found a grow-op with 883
plants.

That address is now among 69 in B.C. posted to a new online database
that lists addresses across the country where Mounties have dismantled
grow ops.

According to the police, addresses posted to the website will stay on
the public database for one year.

Corp. Richard DeJong of the North Vancouver RCMP, said police decided
to post the addresses to raise public awareness that grow-ops exist in
their neighbourhoods. The website also serves as a warning to
potential home buyers who may unwittingly purchase a house that has
previously been used as a grow-op, said DeJong.

Kelvin Neufeld, a director of the B.C. Real Estate Association, calls
the move a "brilliant first step" in helping home-buyers. Although
disclosure forms require sellers to let buyers know if the home has
ever been a grow-op, "the bad guys aren't always truthful when they're
filling it out," he said.

But not everyone agrees the website is warranted. Micheal Vonn, policy
director for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said it's not the
RCMP's job to protect real estate buyers or hand out "extra-judicial
punishment" to those accused of having grow-ops.

"We have a criminal justice system," she said. Vonn said the database
has the potential to lower nearby property values or hurt landlords
who had no idea their tenants were growing marijuana.

"What do they consider a grow-op?" she added. "Six plants in a
closet?"

In the case of those grow-ops so far posted to the website, the number
of plants seized at any one address ranges from 14 to almost 6,500.

According to information filed by the RCMP to obtain the search
warrant for the North Vancouver address, neighbours first alerted
police in May that something fishy might be going on. After the house
sold to new owners at the beginning of the year, nobody was seen
moving into the house, but several young men showed up and began some
kind of renovations, with drilling and hammering sounds coming from
the house in the middle of the night. After that, according to the
search warrant application, the blinds and windows were always kept
closed, no garbage or recycling was ever put out, and different people
were seen going in and out of the house every couple of days.
Neighbours also reported a strong "skunky" odour coming from the home
and that a German shepherd dog was sometimes left in the house and
could be heard barking.

On June 30, police raided the house and dismantled the grow
operation.

DeJong refused to discuss any details of the search, saying the
grow-op is still the subject of a "pretty indepth investigation."

So far no charges have been laid.

A B.C. Assessment report lists Gurdev Singh Cheema and Avtar Kaur
Cheema of Squamish as owners of the property. They bought the house,
now valued at $759,000, in February of this year.

The West Vancouver Police Department has no similar database, and
spokesman Cpl. Jag Johal said he isn't aware of any plans to create
one.

Both the District of North Vancouver and the District of West
Vancouver require property owners to remediate if a grow-op is
discovered, including cleaning up any chemical contamination and
mould. In the District of North Vancouver, information listing the
former grow-op and a re-occupancy permit are placed on the municipal
property tax certificate for the address. In West Vancouver, owners
must notify new occupants in writing that a grow-op has been removed
and cleaned up to meet standards of the local bylaw.

Neufeld said one of the problems for buyers is "there's no standard
place you can go" to find out which properties have been used as
grow-ops, and no consistent standards of remediation. He'd like to see
the province step in to change that.