BURNABY GROW-OP RAISES CHILD WELFARE CONCERNS

B.C. social workers are calling for a code to investigate children
living in houses with marijuana grow operations, after Burnaby RCMP
found three children under 5 in a Burnaby operation this month.

The Burnaby RCMP marijuana enforcement team discovered the children
after entering a barricaded home in the 7800 block of Rosewood Street
with a search warrant Oct. 17. Police found 22 kilograms of dried
pot, as well as 269 plants inside.

A loaded handgun was also found in the home.

Children aged 1, 3 and 4, were living there at the time.

Three adult occupants of the house, a 65-year-old woman, 32-year-old
man, and 29-year-old women, are facing several charges, including
production of a controlled substance, production of a controlled
substance for the purpose of trafficking and unsafe storage of a
restricted weapon.

The Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) was also notified.

But the incident has spurred the B.C. Association of Social Workers
(BCASW) to renew its requests to MCFD for a practice protocol for
child protection social workers to investigate children discovered in grow-ops.

Similar codes have been written for instances where a sexual abuser
returns to a home occupied by a child, or when a child is bitten by a
dog, among others.

"Consistently, MCFD raises the unique circumstances of each (grow-op)
case as a defence for not writing a standard practice policy," said
BCASW executive director Linda Korbin in a press release.

The protocol for children living in grow-ops proposed by BCASW would
evaluate all incidents by looking at the child's risk of violence,
the presence of weapons in the home, the health risks of chemicals,
pesticides and mould, the likelihood of grow-op related fires, and
the parents' willingness or ability to protect their children in such
an environment.

Anyone with information about this or any other grow-op is asked to
call the Burnaby RCMP at 604-294-7922 or Crime Stoppers at
1-800-222-8477 to remain anonymous.