TRIPLING CITY'S TEAM WILL MAKE GROWERS THINK TWICE

While the City of Abbotsford's Grow Op Pilot Public Safety Project may seem
heavy handed to some, we welcome the program that makes homeowners
accountable for what is going on inside their properties.

The city announced last week it would triple in size an initiative that
charges the full clean-up costs for a grow-op to the owner of the home it
was found inside.

However, perhaps the best-selling feature of the program is that it forces
owners to bring properties 100 per cent back to building code standards.

Questions have to be asked whether it is right for owners to foot the bill,
when, if they rent out the property, they may not be the growers themselves.

However, it is important that somebody pays.

No prospective house buyer should be conned into purchasing a home damaged
by illegal activity. In times when property prices are soaring, it is
unfair that innocent people are the ones forced to count the clean-up costs.

Whatever your views on pot legalization, it is hard to argue that a bid to
stop houses from becoming structurally suspect is a good cause.

The question of whether to legalize marijuana is almost irrelevant in
debating this policy.

In fact, those in favour of legalization would point to an ideal world
where pot is grown in monitored facilities, thereby eliminating the need to
infest the interior of homes with dampness and mould.

Grow-ops, they would say, are the result of an industry that is forced to
operate underground.

While debate into that issue will continue long into the future, it is
clear the Grow Op Pilot Project is here to stay.

As of 2006, the property inspection team will increase from three to nine.
While that still may not seem like adequate resources to cover a city of
131,000, it is certainly a step in the right direction.

What is for certain is they will have a lot of work to do. Abbotsford
Police chief Ian Mackenzie said last week that a figure of 700 existing
grow-ops in the city may be a low estimate.

In 90 days the team of three took action against 30 homes. The city may
have started the battle, but the war is far from over.