HOMEGROWN PROBLEMS

Hamilton Police Chief Ken Robertson and other police chiefs favour the
decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana. But the
senate report went beyond decriminalization and surprised many by
calling for the actual legalization of cannabis.

Today, The Spectator looks at the impact of residential pot-grow
operations in the final of a three-part series on marijuana.

Detective Mark Petkoff has a map on the wall of the Drug and Vice
Office where he places a little red sticker each time a marijuana-grow
house is busted in Hamilton. "They're absolutely everywhere," he says.
"There isn't a neighbourhood in the city where you won't find one,
including the suburbs in Ancaster, Stoney Creek and out into rural
areas of Glanbrook."

Over the past two years, residential pot-grow operations have
proliferated in cities across Canada, but especially in British
Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.

Hamilton police have executed 67 search warrants on marijuana-grow
houses so far this year, seizing more than 21,000 plants. Between last
September and January, they seized another 10,000 hydroponic plants.

Depending on the yield and level of sophistication, the cost of
setting up a house with hydroponic equipment is from $8,000 to $15,000.

The larger operations steal about $2,000 a month in electricity by
bypassing the hydro meters and tapping directly into power lines
feeding the house. Growers need a lot more power than the average
homeowner consumes to run dozens of 1,000-watt grow lamps, along with
electrical ballasts, automatic sprinklers, plant feeders and
ventilation systems.

Toronto police estimate some 10,000 marijuana grow houses are
operating in the Greater Toronto Area and calculate Ontario consumers
were footing the bill for at least $500 million a year in stolen hydro.

Police say the lucrative grow operations are backed by organized
criminal networks, a growing number of which are hiring
first-generation Vietnamese immigrants as gardeners.

According to a report on crime statistics published by the Canadian
Centre for Justice Statistics, three-quarters of all drug offences
known to police in Canada in 2000 involved marijuana, and 14 per cent
of those were cultivation offences.

To understand the nature and scope of the problem, it's useful to look
at a recent study commissioned by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in
British Columbia.

That study released in May found a 222 per cent jump in the number of
residential grow-ops found in B.C. between January 1997 and December
2000.

The Vancouver suburb of Delta had a 1,293 per cent increase in grow
houses during the four-year period.

Darryl Plecas is a criminologist at the University College of the
Fraser Valley in Abbotsford. Along with other researchers, he combed
through nearly 12,000 reports on marijuana cultivation on file with
RCMP and municipal police forces in B.C.

"People have the impression these are 'ma and pa' operations, but they
are anything but," says Plecas.

He says there is high level of organization in the B.C grow operations
- -- not just a few kingpins -- but a network of growers operating
throughout the province.

"There is concern about how the huge profits realized by the marijuana
growing operations can be used by organized criminal elements to
finance other activities or to illegally control other markets or
parts of the local economy," says his 78-page report.

During the study period, police seized 1.2 million plants and 8,646
kilograms of harvested marijuana. The high-grade "B.C. bud," which is
exported worldwide, had an estimated value of three-quarters of a
billion dollars.

Plecas said the market value of the seized drugs would have varied,
depending on the quality, quantity and time of year it went to market.

The wholesale street value of B.C-grown marijuana is currently
estimated at between $3,500 to $7,500 per kilogram. However, once the
marijuana makes it across the U.S. border, its value can double or
triple.

A typical pot farmer with 150 pot plants can harvest a crop worth
$150,000 after four months. And with a potential for three harvests a
year, can gross close to half a million dollars.

Of course, critics have long argued that figures such as these get
inflated by police who want to impress politicians to get more money
for their enforcement budgets.

A majority of the B.C suspects were Caucasian males in their mid-30s
who had criminal records, including drug offences and crimes of
violence, dating back an average of 13 years.

But there was also a nearly 20-fold increase in the number of
Vietnamese suspects involved in the B.C. grow-ops. Plecas said he
didn't know why, but twice as many Vietnamese grow-op suspects had
come to British Columbia from Ontario compared with their Caucasian
counterparts.

To put the numbers in context, he removed the data for Vietnamese
suspects in his analysis of the 10 jurisdictions in B.C. with the
highest rate of growth (157 per cent) in marijuana grow-ops. The
percentage increase was only 17 per cent when he excluded all cases
involving suspects of Vietnamese origin.

Although no detailed study of the Ontario data has been published so
far, police here are also seeing a sharp increase in the number of
Vietnamese immigrants charged with operating a residential grow house.

Another common thread is that police get most of their tips from
ordinary citizens who are fed up with the pot house next door.

"Police aren't going out of their way to crack down on the grow-ops,
but are tripping over them during other investigations or getting
anonymous complaints," said Plecas.

Petkoff said Hamilton's 16-officer drug unit is swamped with tips and
complaints. He estimates there are about hundred grow houses operating
here that police just don't have time or resources to
investigate.

The signs that your next-door neighbour is operating a pot-grow house
may include; windows covered in dark plastic or heavy curtains; heavy
condensation on windows; sounds of electrical humming or trickling
water; unexplained power surges or brown outs in the neighbourhood and
an unusual pattern of visitors coming and going from the house.

Hamilton Hydro authorities are astounded by the dangerous conditions
inside the houses, some of which have 30,000 watts of electricity
surging into them -- well in excess of the safe-rating capacity for a
100-ampere service.

They say the houses are firetraps and electrocution hazards, posing a
high risk of harm not only to the occupants but also to neighbours.

In the B.C study, 3.5 per cent of the indoor grow operations were
discovered because a fire broke out in the house. Other hazards, such
as booby traps, explosives, guns, and dangerous chemicals, were found
in 2 per cent of the cases. Children were reported living in the
houses in 4.2 per cent of the files.

Petkoff says it's disturbing to encounter children when executing a
search warrant on a pot-grow house. The kids may be exposed to toxic
mould that grows on drywall and thrives in the hot, humid conditions.
And there are sometimes large holes knocked in floors for ventilation
ducts that are large enough for toddlers to fall through.

In one Stoney Creek house with four young children, police and hydro
officials found propane tanks being used and stored improperly
indoors, creating the very real potential for a catastrophic explosion.

And last, but not least, grow operators leave themselves, their
families and neighbours vulnerable to dangerous home invasion by armed
criminals intent on ripping off their drugs.

"Children are the unfortunate victims in these situations," says
Dominic Verticchio of the Children's Aid Society of Hamilton.

"Child protection workers have come across children living in quarters
that were time bombs; these are accidents waiting to happen."

Hamilton drug officers have begun taking better self-protection
measures when raiding a pot-grow house. After hydro officials cut off
all the power to prevent electrocution, they now don
environmental-protection suits and respirators to protect their lungs
from mould.

Petkoff said it takes hours of work in sweltering heat to dismantle
and secure a pot-grow operation. Shocked property owners may find the
tenants have done extensive damage, including cutting large holes in
walls, floors and in the concrete foundation in order to bypass hydro
meters.

Plecas says Canada has a reputation internationally as a haven for
hydroponic pot growers. He does not believe that either legalization
or decriminalizing the simple possession of marijuana will do anything
to deter traffickers because of the huge market and demand for pot
around the world.

Ontario Court Justice Bernd Zabel recently sent a message to a
Hamilton man convicted of running a indoor pot factory by doubling the
12-month jail sentence sought by the Crown. Residential growers have
"invaded our community with apparent impunity," said Zabel, and
entered residential areas where citizens have saved to purchase their
dream homes "only to be confronted with high-risk criminal activity on
their street, or even next door."

Plecas argues more judges should be lowering the boom on residential
grow operators not just because they fuel organized crime but because
they put innocent lives in danger.

He said half the suspects in the B.C study walked away with no
conviction at all. Jail sentences were imposed in only 18 per cent of
cases with an average length of 4.5 months.

Even when growers were convicted a second or third time, they received
no incremental penalties. He said most jurisdictions in the United
States have severe penalties for these type of operations and the
sanctions appear to work.

"There are no grow-ops to speak of in Washington State. The sentences
are so severe there, why would anybody be willing to risk it?"