BAD SEED

Marijuana grow-ops seem everywhere these days. Some people may
consider it a victimless crime.

The reality is that firefighters, police officers, postal carriers,
even a neighbourhood kid chasing an errant rubber ball may be at risk
of harm or death from these enterprises dominated by organized crime

They're near schools. They're in upscale neighbourhoods and poorer
districts. They're invisible to unwary neighbours who have no idea
they're living next to an extremely dangerous fire hazard and dire
electrical threat housing an operation that may well be the work of
organized crime.

They're marijuana grow-ops, and while once they were a rarity in
Niagara, today they've become commonplace.

Hardly a week goes by nowadays without yet another grow-op bust. What
was once front-page news now rarely warrants a paragraph buried on the
inside pages of a newspaper. Even police admit exactly how many more
there are out there is a mystery.

"That's almost impossible to tell," conceded Det.-Staff Sgt. George
Ravenek, head of the Niagara Regional Police intelligence unit, which
includes the new NRP guns, gangs and grow unit established last
October. "It's hard to predict how many there are and where they are,"
said Ravenek.

That's because grow-ops can turn up in gritty war-time homes or -- as
shown a couple of weeks ago -- in an upscale neighbourhood in north
Niagara Falls, where curious neighbours standing on manicured lawns
watched police officers in full hazardous materials suits take down
yet another grow-op.

What is known is this. It has become a multimillion-dollar business in
Niagara and the massive profits the operations can generate --
combined with what officials say are lax penalties for those caught --
are fuelling what is now a multibillion-dollar industry in Ontario.

The industry, in turn, is fuelling trade in illicit guns, and
trafficking of drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy, according to the
Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP). As many as 85 per cent
of grow-ops are believed to be set up by organized crime, the
association estimates.

It can cost as little as $25,000 for the hydroponics, lighting and
chemicals needed to start a full-scale grow-op, and growers can
produce a street value of $1,000 worth of drugs from a single plant
within just a few months.

Recent busts at a St. Catharines grow-op, uncovered after the home
caught fire, and another in Welland, netted marijuana with a combined,
estimated street value of $350,000.

In 2006, 45 grow-ops were busted in Niagara with marijuana plants with
a street value of well over $7-million seized, NRP statistics show. In
2005, plants with an estimated street value of nearly $11-million were
seized in Niagara grow-ops.

A landmark report on grow-ops produced by the OACP recently, called
"Green Tide: Indoor Marijuana Cultivation and its impact on Ontario,"
said the number of grow-ops in the province is growing exponentially
with each passing year.

It's still true that money doesn't grow on trees, but grow-ops come as
close as possible to that old adage being tossed out the window.

The OACP said a grow-op with a $25,000 investment can easily generate
$600,000 in a single year, or much more than twice that if the
marijuana is destined for the streets of the United States, which much
of it is.

Some are high-profile, such as the bust of a massive grow-op in the
former Molson brewery in Barrie in 2004, in which marijuana with a
street value of $30-million was seized. In late November, police were
stunned when they discovered a Toronto high-rise building full of
unwitting neighbours had no less than 22 grow-ops set up. Much more
common, however, are smaller-scale operations quietly cranking out pot
and boatloads of money in and among middle class homes.

The bust at the Niagara Falls grow-op on Claude Avenue was the second
time in five years police uncovered a marijuana growing operation in
the house.

Among the many disadvantages the operations pose is the theft of vast
amounts of hydro -- possibly as high as $60-million a year according
to the OACP -- from Ontario's already struggling hydro power grid.

Grow-ops require huge amounts of hydro for the high-wattage lighting
needed to accelerate plant growth, making them vulnerable to being
red-flagged by hydro utilities, which then alert emergency officials.
The Claude Avenue basement grow-op was wired to blast out up to 25,000
watts of light.

So in many cases grow-ops employ crudely-made bypasses to divert power
from main supply lines.

Aside from the financial and electrical drain on Ontario's power grid,
the bypasses pose potentially life-threatening risks. Police and fire
officials say the ham-handed electrical work, which often includes
bare wires and a lack of circuit breakers and fuses, can electrify the
home's hydro conduit and the ground around it.

Surrey, B.C. Fire Chief Len Garis, whose province experienced
explosive growth in grow-ops even before Ontario did, said in a recent
report that a person or animal within 10 metres or 33 feet of the
home's ground rod -- usually located at the side of the house -- could
be electrocuted.

The NRP's Ravenek said anyone -- a postal carrier, neighbour or even a
local kid chasing an errant ball -- could be at risk.

They're not the only ones. Officials say homes rigged as grow-ops are
40 times more likely to catch fire because of the risk of electrical
arcing, overheating of circuits or improper wiring that is
commonplace.

Jim Jessop knows all too well the risk that poses to firefighters. In
2002, Niagara Falls firefighters responded to a house fire on
Beaverdams Road, not knowing it was a grow-op. One of the firefighters
became entangled in wires and beccame disoriented because of false
walls in the basement. He made it out alive, but with burns to his
face.

Jessop, the department's fire prevention officer, said when
firefighters enter a burning home, visibility is often zero.

"You can't see your hands in front of your face," he said, meaning the
electrical and structural risks of entering a grow-op you don't know
is there are very real.

Since that 2002 fire, the Niagara Falls fire department has become
recognized as the country's most proactive department in the fight
against grow-ops. In March of 2006, the department obtained the first
conviction in Canada for Ontario Fire Code violations relating to a
grow-up in the city: the owner of the building was fined $15,000.

The department is also working hand-in-hand with police, hydro
utilities, municipal officials and the five major banks to
collectively attack the problem. Just over a year ago, the province
passed new legislation largely aimed at grow-ops, allowing hydro
companies to disconnect electricity without notice to homes suspected
of being grow-ops.

The legislation also doubled maximum fines under the Fire Prevention
and Protection Act, and now allows the proceeds of seized assets from
grow-ops such as cars and homes to be spent on enforcement, crime
prevention and victim compensation.

Jessop said the banks' role is that they can call in the mortgage of
homes used as grow-ops, forcing the owners to carry out repairs of the
property to the satisfaction of municipal building officials and the
fire department. The Niagara Falls fire department recently demolished
a Theresa Street home, in which about $400,000 worth of marijuana
plants were found, because the owner failed to repair the site as ordered.

The province announced June 6 that it plans to roll the Niagara Falls
model out across Ontario, bringing the fight against grow-ops to
cities everywhere.

Grow-op operators often carry out radical renovations such as cutting
holes through homes' foundations and altering furnaces to increase
carbon dioxide and life-threatening carbon monoxide. That, plus mold
caused by the hot and humid conditions inside the homes and
contamination by pesticides and other chemicals used in the
operations, pose serious health threats to anyone who lives there
later, say officials.

Ravenek said homes used as grow-ops often have to be completely gutted
if they're to be safe to live in again. Often, it's landlords -- who
rent out or lease homes to people who convert the properties into
grow-ops and then abandon them after harvesting crops -- who are left
holding the bag for repairs.

One Toronto homeowner has spent $85,000 in repairs on the home he
unwittingly rented to a grow-op operator, said Ravenek.

The new powers in the recent Ontario legislation should make it easier
for the coalition of police, fire departments, municipal building
officials and banks to put the onus on landlords to carry out monthly
inspections of their properties so they don't get stuck with such huge
repair bills, said Ravenek. The recent demolition of the Niagara Falls
home used as a grow-up should send a message to other potential
operators in the region that Niagara is coming after them, said Ravenek.

"We (can) make it so undesirable to grow marijuana in Niagara, you'll
go elsewhere," he said.

But Ravenek conceded those who operate grow-ops, spurred on by the
massive profits, aren't stupid: one operator in B.C. who was caught
recently had rotating crops in three rooms in a home. With only 18
plants per room, the grow-op was small enough that it could operate
under the radar in terms of hydro usage, yet the man was hauling in
$10,000 a month tax-free, said Ravenek.

"These guys, unfortunately, are getting smarter."

As police, fire and hydro officials have become more aggressive in the
fight against grow-ops, those running the operations have, too. The
OACP said the vast majority of grow-ops are run by organized crime.

A disturbing new trend is for grow-ops to be booby
trapped.

In Peel Region and Hamilton in recent years, police have discovered
wires and coat hangers jammed into electrical outlets near entry
points in an attempt to deliver an electrical shock to anyone
entering, jars of acid strategically located to spill on intruders,
and something known as a "mousetrap" in which a plank of wood and some
metal parts were rigged to detonate a shotgun shell if tripped.

"We haven't found that yet here," said Jessop. "We've been
lucky."

Higher fines for those caught not withstanding, Niagara Falls' Jessop
said the massive profits generated by grow-ops will continue to fuel
their growth unless the court system begins to treat grow-ops for what
they really are: life-threatening, criminal operations.

While sentences for marijuana cultivation can range from 33 months to
more than seven years in a federal penitentiary in the U.S., in
British Columbia between 1997 and 2000 only 18 per cent of grow-op
prosecutions resulted in incarceration, with the average sentence only
4.5 months, the OACP report said.

"The courts haven't accepted that it is a public health risk," said
Jessop. "Unfortunately, it's going to take someone getting killed.

"If I told you you could make a million dollars and get six days of
house arrest, would you do it?

"There's a ton of them out there, and they're not going
away."

[sidebar]

WARNING SIGNS

Many people are shocked when they learn a neighbouring home has been
busted for being a marijuana grow-op. Signs a home may be a grow-up
often include common clues:

Residents of the home rarely appear to be home and are only home for
short periods of time;

They usually enter the home through the garage or back entrance to
conceal activity;

The radio or television are left on;

Junk mail piles up;

The home's exterior is often untidy with uncut grass, garbage bags and
used soil and plastic pots;

Windows are boarded and may have a layer of condensation;

Signs of digging are evident near the hydro box;

The property has warning signs such as "Beware of Dog" or "Guard
Dog."

Strange smells, especially a skunk-like odour, come from the
home;

Equipment such as large fans, lights and plastic containers are
carried into the home;

Sources: RCMP, Surrey, B.C. Fire Department

Next Friday, Part 2 of This Three-Part Series Explores the Impact of
Today's Increasingly Potent Marijuana