TURNING OFF THE LIGHTS ON GROW HOUSES

Ontario Minister of Community Safety & Correctional Services, Monte
Kwinter, has said that he plans on introducing legislation this fall that
would enable hydro companies to shut off electricity at suspected marijuana
growing sites.

"Grow houses" are generally typical-looking family-oriented houses which
are often located in urban areas. Although they may look like generic
family houses on the outside, the inside of the house is filled with crops
of marijuana that require huge amounts of light and heat to grow.

Media relations officer for the Niagara Regional Police, Rick Geady, is in
favour of the legislation proposal.

"I don't know if [the legislation] will make any changes, but it may
certainly help us in the fight against the illegal marijuana operations
that are prolific throughout Ontario," said Geady. "In the case of
marijuana growth, the amount of hydro that is stolen is significant and so
if it puts a dent on that or slows it down, then I think every police
service will welcome [the legislation] and see it as a good thing."

Geady said he thinks it's too early to determine how this legislation will
affect marijuana growth in the Niagara Region, but said that "anything we
do in this vain is going to help; whether or not it's successful ... Time
will tell."

Although shutting off hydro to suspected houses seems like a brilliant
plan, Niagara Falls Hydro director of administration, Michael Freel, said
that hydro cannot be shut off "without 100 per cent justification."

Suspected grow houses are detected by "a lot of things," said Geady,
"[they] are visible to anyone who happens to be in the area. You will see
homes that the owners are seemingly absent. They [the owners] come for
short periods of time at odd hours of the day. The windows of the residence
are usually boarded or blinded ... to prevent the emission of lighting used
inside to be seen from the outside. You'll see venting in the rooms,
through walls ... those are the main things. There is also an incredibly
pungent, very distinctive odour that would be emitting from the venting
systems, that once you've smelt it, you know exactly what it is. Growing
marijuana produces a very strong, pungent aroma."

Marijuana grow houses are also known to be potential fire hazards.

"These people that wire these homes," said Geady, "[usually] tap into the
opposite side of where the hydro meter is, they splice into them by bearing
wires and just taping a wire or clamping a 'jumper wire' off of that [the
hydro meter]. They string these wires to open transformers throughout the
building with wires running like a ball of spaghetti everywhere ... you're
dealing with a system where these transformers hold residual energy, even
after they're shut off. You're dealing with them in high humidity
situations. And then to add to it, the lighting sources that they use
produce an incredible amount of heat and we've had many resulting fires
from [these houses] at various locations throughout the region."

"Some of the installations that we've seen," said Freel. "Don't have safety
in mind ... all they want to do is get in, get a crop and get out."

According to Geady, once growth houses are detected, officers have to "get
sufficient evidence to substantiate or to prove to a justice so they can
get a search warrant to enter the residence and search, then charges are
laid, and the growth is dismantled and charges are laid once [they] can
prove who was operating or attending to it."

"It could take several months," said Freel concerning the process of grow
house detection. "It all depends on our available resources and the
monitoring that we would have to put in place and basically confirm that we
have a growth."

Geady said that he hopes the proposal of the legislation will help with the
marijuana situation in Ontario.

"I'm thinking that it'll help deter people from becoming involved in
[marijuana growth]," said Geady. "It may shut some of [the grow houses]
down before they get too advanced or there's too many crops that they've
already harvested before they become detected. So, I'm thinking anything
that the governments can do to [help] ... any extra tools that they can
provide, that'll help us combat this problem that is prolific throughout
Ontario, then that's all the better as far as we, the police, are concerned."

"I think it's another tool that we can definitely use," said Freel.