REAL ESTATE AGENTS WON'T HUNT POT

Winnipeg's real estate agents will not try to sniff out illegal
marijuana grow-ops in city homes after all.

Winnipeg Real Estate Board President Cliff King proposed earlier this
month that the board hold talks with police about real estate agents
working with them in the war on drugs.

But the board rejected the idea at a meeting yesterday, King
said.

"There were a couple of realtors concerned that they might be possible
targets of gang activity," King said.

"I floated the balloon and there wasn't a big interest," he
said.

King said he believes real estate agents will report illegal activity
when they see it, as they have done in the past. But "the board isn't
going to order its realtors to go out and look for pot operations."
John Conroy, president of the National Organization for Reform of
Marijuana Laws in Canada, said the board did the right thing in
rejecting King's suggestion.

"They are real estate agents; they're not police officers," said
Conroy, an attorney in Abbotsford, B.C.