CITY TARGETS HYDROPONIC SALES

The city is adding another weapon to its arsenal for its ongoing battle
with grow-ops.

At their last regular meeting, council directed staff to investigate the
possibility of trying to control hydroponic sales to make it life difficult
for indoor grow-ops to set up shop.

Coun. Sharon Gaetz, who chairs the city's public safety advisory committee,
brought up the issue after attending the annual general meeting of the
Union of British Columbia Municipalities in late September. At the AGM, the
City of Abbotsford made a motion calling for tougher regulation of
hydroponic sales, an idea that UBCM delegates endorsed.

When Gaetz mentioned the possibility to her colleagues on council at the
last meeting, the mayor suggested she make a motion to get the city to look
into establishing some regulations to control hydroponic sales.

"That's the way we've always done things in Chilliwack: Let's get started,
let's get busy," she said.

Gaetz said it is not possible to prohibit the sale of hydroponic equipment,
particularly as the items can be used for legitimate agricultural purposes,
such as growing tomatoes. Rather the plan would be to regulate the sales by
calling for information from the purchaser such as who they are and what
they intend to use the product.

The hope is that this will make it harder for marijuana producers to get
the necessary equipment.

"We want to shut them down. One of the ways to do that is to limit their
supply," Gaetz said.

She sees the regulations working along the lines of the recent XTRACT
system that came on-line in the city to keep track of goods coming into
second-hand stores and pawn shops. A police database helps determine if
items have been reported stolen. Gaetz would like to see whether the
database can be adapted to help keep track of who might be using the
equipment and for what purpose.

The link between hydroponic sales and the marijuana trade seems to go
hand-in-hand. The recent growth of hydroponic stores in B.C. was cited in a
much publicized study on grow-ops by the University College of the Fraser
Valley's criminology department this spring.

"We've had a 50-per-cent increase in hydroponic stores since 2000," Gaetz
said. "There's something about the loopholes in B.C. that's allowing that
to happen."

The report states that between 2000 and 2004 the number of hydroponic
stores grew from 101 to 149 locations. It also points out the rate of
growth is higher than rates in a couple of B.C.'s closest neighbours.
Compared with Washington State, the rate here was six times higher and
almost four times higher than that of Alberta. This translates into 3.53
hydroponic outlets for every 100,000 people in B.C., compared with 0.91 for
Alberta and 0.57 for Washington State.

"Marijuana growing operations have not only grown in size over the past
seven years, the sophistication of the operations also appears to be
increasing. In the last three years of this study, it appears that more
specialized equipment (i.e. timers, advanced hydroponic systems, electrical
bypasses) are being used," the report states.