CALL FOR STRICTER POT RULES

Several residents in a southwest community are not surprised to see a
home where marijuana was being legally grown shuttered after being
deemed unfit for human habitation.

Despite it being an address Health Canada had licenced to produce
medicinal marijuana, many neighbours of the Windsor Park home say
they long suspected what was going on behind closed doors and are
happy to see officials put an end the operation.

The strong, distinct odour of pot often wafted in the air and there
was also a concerning steady stream of visitors to the house, said
several neighbours including a father who said the presence of drugs,
in part, prompted his family to move out of the community.

Jim Waugh, seeing a fence surrounding the home Thursday, said he was
hardly stunned to see officials had moved in.

"oeI'm sure all those people didn't have prescriptions," said Waugh,
who had no issues with the residents but didn't like drugs being
grown so close to home.

A day after officials moved in, city officials vented about the
inability to get their hands on a list of licensed medical marijuana
grow-ops in Calgary because Health Canada doesn't share it.

Health Canada releases the number of sanctioned grow ops in Canada,
but doesn't specify locations.

Wayne Brown with the city's Co-ordinated Safety Response Team (CSRT)
said their main beef is that these operations should follow rules strictly.

"oeWe would like all these houses to comply with regulations, with
bylaw and safety codes," he said.

"oeI think working with Health Canada certainly into the future we'll
get a handle on this."

Brown said officials only knew of two medical marijuana grow-ops in
the city, the recently closed one and another one where a deadly
explosion occurred back in Oct. 1, 2011.

A 42-year-old man injured in that blaze lived in the Windsor Park
home shuttered on Wednesday, and died earlier this month.

There were allegedly about three times the number of plants permitted
by the licence found in the home.

Officials with CSRT investigated the explosion and tips from the
public led them to the second location, where multiple safety
infractions were found including building code infractions,
compromised air intakes, toxins, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizer
and potential contamination of drinking water.

The city plans on talking with Health Canada officials about the two incidents.

As of January 2010, Alberta had 322 permits to possess medicinal marijuana.