LEGAL MARIJUANA GROW-OPS A MAGNET FOR CRIME, OFFICIALS WORRY

VANCOUVER - The wind was howling one morning in late November when
police were called to a shooting at a rural acreage in Mission, B.C.

Inside the gates was a 31-year-old man with non-life threatening
gunshot wounds; the victim of a home invasion aimed at stealing the
medicinal marijuana crop he'd come to tend.

Neighbours weren't overly surprised; not long ago another man was shot
just down the road, said Cathy Erickson, who has lived on the street
for 23 years. And a house on the corner was condemned after it was
found housing a grow-op.

"It's not the first one on this street - there's been lots of busts,"
Erickson said. "The big concern for us is you don't know if they're
going to pick the right house when they come looking."

The situation in the small B.C. community underscores a growing trend
being played out across Canada, where 12,000 licences have been issued
by Health Canada to allow people to grow medicinal weed.

The permits allow people with certain conditions - such as glaucoma,
spinal cord injuries, pain or nausea from cancer or HIV - to grow
medical pot in their homes or designate someone else to grow it for them.

But many municipalities, especially those in B.C. where close to 3,000
medical marijuana permits have been issued, argue the program is rife
with abuse. A proliferation of grow operations has led to house fires,
violent home invasions and black-market dealing - with some sanctioned
growers growing far more than they need.

In Chilliwack, B.C., for instance, the city knows of at least one home
where there's enough medical marijuana being grown to provide each of
its four licensed growers with bud for 78,000 joints a year, Mayor
Sharon Gaetz said.

"Obviously one person couldn't consume that amount of medical
marijuana," Gaetz said. "We're afraid this is a back-door way for pot
to be growing in homes and basically made legal."

The situation has led to a national outcry across Canada, from
Victoria to Halifax to Whitehorse, according to the Federation of
Canadian Municipalities. Led by B.C., municipalities have lobbied the
FCM for five years for change, arguing licences to cultivate medical
marijuana are being given out without informing local authorities or
requiring proper building permits.

And as Health Canada won't release locations of medical marijuana grow
operations because of privacy concerns, often the first time
municipalities hear about them is when a home catches fire, is ripped
off or there's a sharp spike in power use.

Fire officials say in a home without a grow operation, the risk of
fire is estimated to be a one-in-525 chance; if marijuana is grown in
the house, the chance rises to one in 22.

Jim Jessop, deputy chief of the Niagara Falls Fire Department and
chairman of the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs, said safety risks
are multiplied at homes with marijuana grow operations - legal or
otherwise - as growers often cut holes in the walls, floors and
ceilings to run overhead ventilation tubes or extension cords.

An Ontario firefighter was injured after falling through a floor
fighting a medical marijuana fire, he said, and there's a risk
firefighters could get tangled in the myriad overhead wires. The
Niagara Falls fire department also had to remove children from a home
a few years ago because the building was so unsound and had such
noxious levels of gas and carbon dioxide it had to be closed down.

Ontario firefighters are calling for Health Canada to require
municipal pre- and post-inspections of homes that have housed a
marijuana grow operation to ensure they are safe. Ontario passed a law
requiring all homes with a marijuana grow operation to be inspected,
but that doesn't help if municipal leaders don't know where they are.

"We don't really care what they're growing; we just want it done
safely, according to the law, and don't want members of the public or
firefighters getting killed or injured in these structures," Jessop
said. "There has to be a safer way of doing this."

Peter Fassbender, mayor of Langley, B.C., which has lobbied the
Federation of Canadian Municipalities to cancel all medical marijuana
growing licences, argues the only way to address the issue is to
change Health Canada policy.

He and other municipalities have argued for a centralized growing and
distribution facility where people who need medical marijuana can get
it by prescription.

"It should be that simple," he said. "We're all basically in the same
boat. Health Canada has to fix what they developed."

The federal agency appears to be listening.

In June, Health Canada announced it is considering improvements to the
Medical Marijuana Access program to "reduce the risk of abuse and
exploitation by criminal elements."

One of its proposals is to commercialize the growing and distribution
of medicinal marijuana under tightly regulated conditions. Doctors
would have to sign off on requests for medical marijuana, with
individuals then sending the physician's document directly to a
licensed commercial producer of their choice.

Chilliwack's Gaetz said at first blush it looks like a good idea,
noting: "If it truly is a drug, it needs to be sold out of a pharmacy."

But she and others agree that any commercial facilities must meet
municipal bylaws and zoning requirements. Municipal delegates at an
FCM conference earlier this year approved a resolution demanding that
Health Canada force medical marijuana applicants to also get a
municipal permit to ensure grow-ops meet building safety regulations.

City officials in Surrey, B.C., have also passed their own bylaw
requiring medical marijuana growers to obtain municipal permits and
grow in agricultural areas. Under the bylaw, if a person refuses to
comply, they may be convicted of an indictable offence.

Edmonton Coun. Karen Leibovici said that while the Health Canada
proposal would help municipalities identify medical marijuana growing
operations, she worries the government will off-load more of the
responsibility and costs - particularly in terms of safety and
security - of the federal program onto municipalities.

"If we're moving toward a larger commercial operation and
dispensaries, we need to know the implications," Leibovici said. "At
the end of the day what everyone wants is to ensure that if there's a
need (for medicinal marijuana), there's safe access to the product."

Leibovici notes that Alberta, like B.C., is grappling with similar
issues of "house destruction" due to illegal wiring, mould, structural
alterations and electricity theft. The province is also seeing more
grow operations, especially in Calgary and in smaller, rural areas
where they are harder to detect, she added, noting Alberta has an
ongoing Stop Marijuana Grow Coalition.

But in many cases, municipalities' hands are tied.

Police won't get involved in medical marijuana issues unless there's
been some form of criminal activity, such as a noticeable theft in
electricity or other breaches of local bylaws.

Earlier this year, RCMP drug investigators arrested three men and
seized a helicopter after raiding a Maple Ridge, B.C., property that
was growing almost seven times more pot than its two medical marijuana
licences permitted. They found 1,490 plants instead of the 220
permitted by two licences provided by Health Canada to grow medical pot.

Supt. Brian Cantera, who heads the RCMP's Federal Drug Enforcement
Branch in B.C., said that a review of the medical licence files across
Canada where police have been called in showed that in about 50 per
cent of the cases, the growing operation was linked to someone with a
trafficking or production conviction, according to the RCMP.

In about a third of the operations police investigated, he said, the
licence holders were growing more marijuana than their licence
permitted. The police concerns have been passed on to Health Canada.

Cantera said the frustration is shared among public safety officials
across Canada, all of whom are dealing with problems of electrical
safety and the potential dangers to neighbourhoods where medicinal pot
is being grown.

In Langley, a recent city council candidate was arrested for allegedly
having an illegal marijuana growing operation in his home. When it was
shut down, many residents complained that the city was taking away
their access to medical marijuana, even though the city couldn't
confirm who had permits.

"I don't think we should have mini-grows in residential
neighbourhoods," Mayor Fassbender said, "It's a very difficult thing
to control."