GONE TO POT?

Already this year, London police have seized marijuana with a street value
of more than $1 million from home grow operations.

They are insidious. They can be dangerous. They are everywhere.

Marijuana home grows are spreading throughout London, so much so police say
you could walk 10 minutes in any direction and come across one.

No part of the Forest City is immune. Established neighbourhoods and new,
burgeoning ones have all fallen prey to resourceful drug growers.

Just two weeks ago, police busted one on Westdel Bourne on the edge of the
city.

So pervasive are home grows that a look at recent busts found one not far
from the home of the city's police chief. Others have been found near
schools and churches.

No one kind of house has been targeted. Big houses, small houses, nice
houses, neighbourhood eyesores and that quaint cottage-style country home
can all be the site where thousands of dollars worth of drugs are growing.

Police have said there are so many grow ops in the city they could raid one
every day if they had the time.

This year alone, London police have seized pot plants with a street value
of more than $1 million from grow ops.

Even the head of the London police vice and drug unit uncovered a grow op
five houses from his own home while out on a walk.

Det. Sgt. John Carson noticed he never saw his neighbours, the windows were
always covered and no garbage was ever put out on pickup day.

He watched the house for a couple of weeks.

"There just never seemed to be anybody at that house," he said.

When police searched the home, they found $350,000 worth of marijuana
inside. And the house's foundation had been drilled to tap into the hydro
stack and bypass the meter. (Police estimate a typical home grow steals
about $1,000 worth of electricity a month.)

Grow ops are such a problem that three years ago the force added a thermal
imaging camera to their line of defence.

Specially trained officers use the camera on suspected home grows to track
how much heat the house is giving off compared to others on the block.
Typically, grow ops give off much more heat. Results of the scan are used
as a basis for a search warrant.

Not every seldom-seen neighbour is growing marijuana, Carson said. But
people should become suspicious when quiet neighbours don't take part in
normal neighbourhood activities -- such as putting out their garbage.

That's where police say they need the eyes and ears of the community to
help them.

"People on the same street need to do a double check and say, 'Do I really
know who's there?' " said Rosemary Dickinson, Oakridge-Hazelton community
liaison for the Urban League of London.

In February, about a 10-minute walk from Dickinson's Riverside Drive home,
police uncovered a home grow with more than 680 plants.

Many grow ops are arranged by organized crime groups and violence often
follows, Carson said. The houses are made unliveable and they lower
property values of houses around them, he added. Most homes used to grow
pot need to be rewired and black toxic mould, a common grow house feature,
means walls and floors have to be ripped out to get rid of the stuff.
Growers also drill into the foundation and roof of the house for
ventilation, making the place structurally unsound.

And the chemicals used to coax the plants to grow are toxic.

The houses are also fire traps because bypassed meters can start a fire and
pose the risk of electrocution.

Addresses busted in the last year and a half. Each plant seized has a
street value of about $1,000.

1 April 16, 2005 965 Westdel Bourne 69 plants

2 April 1, 2005 364 Hale St. 80 plants and 3 lbs.

3 March 4, 2005 1332 Highbury Ave. 56 plants

4 Feb. 21, 2005 20 Childers St. 62 plants

5 Feb. 10, 2005 877 Riverside Dr. 683 plants

6 Jan. 12, 2005 181 Ellsworth Ave. 111 plants

7 Jan. 10, 2005 156 Emerson Ave. 26 plants

8 Dec. 4, 2004 41 Kenwood Cres. 80 plants

9 Nov. 26, 2004 62 Josephine St. 201 plants

10 Sept. 7, 2004 730 Cranbrook Rd. 750 plants

11 Aug. 20, 2004 97 Renny Cres. 12 plants

12 Aug. 18, 2004 103 Roehampton Ave. 37 plants

13 Aug. 11, 2004 453 Castlegrove Blvd. 144 plants

14 Aug. 7, 2004 114 Pauline Cres. Unit 26 14 plants

15 June 16, 2004 1725 Parkhurst Ave. 14 plants

16 June 9, 2004 200 Rectory St. 129 plants

17 June 4, 2004 B-230 Burnside Dr. 109 plants

18 June 4, 2004 16 Speight Cres. 58 plants

19 June 4, 2004 126 Muriel Cres. 17 plants

20 June 4, 2004 1390 Aldersbrook Rd. 34 plants

21 May 21, 2004 823 Lovett St. 81 plants

22 May 19, 2004 346 Edmonton St. 124 plants

23 May 19 988 Dearness Dr. 107 plants

24 May 19 172 Emerald Rd. 207 plants

25 May 18 151 Langarth St. W. 565 plants

26 May 18, 2004 14 Gibbons Pl. 50 plants

27 April 30, 2004 204 Chelton Rd. 124 plants

28 April 23, 2004 1001-955 Wonderland Rd. S. 1.3 kg of marijuana

29 April 23, 2004 6 Bloomsbury Crt. 58 plants

30 April 23, 2004 1476 Hamilton Rd. 36 plants

31 April 20, 2004 7 Holiday Ave. 355 plants

32 April 14, 2004 253 Astoria Pl. 635 plants

33 April 8, 2004 70 Rectory St. 100 plants

34 April 5, 2004 1447 Adelaide St. N. 143 plants

35 March 19, 2004 1840 Phillbrook Dr. 430 plants

36 March 19, 2004 460 Highland Ave. Apt 302 180 plants

37 March 19, 2004 709 Huron St. 70 plants

38 March 5, 2004 245 Millbank Dr. 1,200 plants

39 Jan. 13, 2004 6643 Fisher Lane 914 plants

40 Jan. 4, 2004 80 Egerton St. 32 plants

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Signs your neighbour might be running a marijuana grow operation:

- - The outside of the house is untidy and ill kept.

- - Garbage bags filled with soil and plant material are thrown out.

- - Covered windows.

- - Bright light can be seen through the windows.

- - Tampered or bypassed hydro meters.

- - People are never at the house for long.

- - People enter and leave through the garage.

- - Construction and ventilation fans can be heard.

- - People arrive and leave with garbage bags full of property.

- - People bring lots of soil and growing equipment into house.

If you suspect a house is a marijuana grow house, call London police at
661-5670 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.