COST OF DISMANTLING GROW-OPS SHOULD NOT FALL ON HOMEOWNER

Letter to the editor:

Recouping the cost of dismantling grow-ops from property owners is
the most ludicrous idea I've heard in a long time .

Police departments, just like fire departments, or city council and
city works departments, are all funded by the taxes property owners
are paying yearly .

If you have an accident on the road, or your house burns down, there
is no charge for the fire, police or ambulance coming to the scene,
even if it is you that screwed up.

When there is a crime committed, police do not charge for coming to the scene.

So, why should property owners have to pay to have police dismantle grow-ops?

I own rental properties and if one of my tenants sets up a grow-op in
the basement, I have no way of knowing or finding out .

Not even the police can enter private residences to make inspections,
unless they have a search warrant.

If and when there is a grow-op discovered in one of my rental houses,
I will have to bear the cost of renovating the house to make it
habitable again .

And you want me to pay for police shutting down the operation? You
must be joking.

That is just as ludicrous as me demanding that the police should pay
me for not nipping it in the bud before it became a grow-op. With all
of their resources, informants and law properly enforced, there
should be no grow-op in the city in the first place .

If anybody should bear the cost, it should be the lawmakers and
judges for being too lenient with the potheads and the growers.

Karel Sana