AN INSIDE LOOK AT A MARIJUANA GROW OPERATION

Special Report - Reporter Howard Mozel Gives an In-Depth Look at a
Marijuana Grow Operation

Touring an Oakville marijuana growing operation makes it clear the lengths
to which people will go to make drug money while underscoring the very real
dangers associated with this illegal activity.

After all, says Halton Regional Police Drug and Morality Bureau officers,
these houses pose a threat to firefighters, funnel money to organized crime
activities and often create fear and uncertainty in residential
neighbourhoods where they exist.

When a Parklane Road residence was raided by police on April 24, they
discovered a complicated growing system worth more than $40,000 plus
approximately 700 marijuana plants with a street value of $700,000. With
the potential to harvest three crops in a year, the house could have
produced more than $2 million worth of pot annually.

From the outside the house looks nondescript, with a tended lawn and none
of the tell-tale signs of neglect that tipped off neighbours and police in
the past. According to Det. Larry Burns, offenders sometimes leave
children's toys and bicycles outside to give their place a lived-in look
when in fact they only drop by every couple of days to monitor their crops.

In one case, an elderly neighbour unsuspectingly helped a pot grower shovel
his driveway and was rewarded with a bottle of wine as a gesture of thanks.
The attempt at deceptive civility failed, however, as police raided the
place not long after.

Last week, the Oakville Beaver was allowed inside the Parklane house once
it was secured and for the first time police conducted a tour of a Halton
growing operation, led by Burns.

The first stop was the front living room, which contained furniture and
lights on timers to act as a cover. Adjacent to the "normal" kitchen was a
bare family room, whose sole decor was a large metallic air duct that
snaked up through a hole cut in the floor to the boarded up hearth, up
which fumes from the basement garden were vented.

"That's to get the odour out as far as possible so it isn't detected from
the neighbourhood," said Burns.

Some pot growers show no such restraint and simply cut openings through the
floors, ceilings and the roof itself to expel suspicious smells. Burns also
pointed out new, heavy-duty locks to keep out the landlord adding that some
such houses are "heavily barricaded."

Downstairs is where the real damage is done and where the pungent smelling
marijuana plants are grown and tended. To accomplish this, a series of
1,000-watt, sodium-filled bulbs hooded by large reflectors are suspended
from the ceiling to immerse the plants in powerful light for as long as 18
hours a day.

"It's so intense ... the windows in the basement need to be sealed," said
Burns. "That's why they try to make the house look as normal as possible."

In order to hide the electricity needed to pull this off -- 50 to 70 times
that used in a regular family home -- the growers at Parklane excavated the
basement foundation just below the breaker panel through to the soil and
installed a bypass to allow unregulated power to flow to a second panel
installed by the growers. This contained breakers for each of the powerful
light bulbs and fans bolted to the beams, which vented fumes upstairs and
out the chimney.

Lighting ballasts were also required at Parklane to handle the enormous
power, said Burns, who has seen them get so hot they've left scorch marks
on their wooden supports. The Parklane basement also contained plastic
drums of chemicals such as pesticides and growing enhancers.

In some cases, the stairs to the basement have been removed and a simple
ladder positioned to create even more room for growing. Parklane's farming
was restricted to the cellar level, but Burns explained how, in some
operations, virtually every room in the house is used, multiplying the damage.

Witnessing these extensive "renovations" to this particular house, it's
easy to see how these operations create the risk of fire and compound the
dangers faced by firefighters who might respond only to face a situation
far more hazardous than that offered by a regular home.

Because of the sometimes radical alterations done to these buildings, in
order to steal electricity and vent suspect fumes, the structural integrity
can be so compromised that fire crews can encounter unstable walls, higher
temperatures and electrocution.

"The potential for fire is very real," said Burns, who explained that water
leakage coupled with jury-rigged wiring has disaster written all over it.

That's why technicians from Oakville Hydro are invaluable assets to the
police and help in making the houses safe for officers.

"We've always received good assistance from Oakville Hydro," said Burns.
"They've been great."

People living in the grow houses are also at risk from fire and vapours
from chemicals and, in some cases, children have lived inside breathing the
fumes.

The end results of all this time, effort and illegal activity are the
marijuana plants which, at the Parklane house, took the form of "clones,"
or cuttings, plus plants at the potted stage and those nearing maturity.
Some were only about a month away from harvest, said Burns. These plants
could have produced a pound of pot each.

"They also have a higher level of THC (the active ingredient in marijuana)
than ever before," said Burns.

In order to help police, residents are encouraged to be aware of "abnormal
behaviour," such as houses whose residents only sporadically attend, appear
vacant most of the time and are allowed to become unkempt.

Unusual smells may sometimes be detected emanating from a grow house while
some or all of the windows may be covered. Bright lights may occasionally
be seen in the home.

"We want the public to know what's going on," said Halton Media Relations
Officer Sgt. Val Hay.

Anyone with information is encouraged to call police at 905-825-4777 or
Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS.

Yet, simply knowing about a grow operation (34 of them in Halton have been
closed down since last May) is not enough to carry out seizures and
arrests, said Burns. In order to make officers' efforts pay off in court,
every T in their investigations must be crossed and every I in their search
warrants -- which can take up to 12 hours each to prepare -- must be dotted.

In the meantime, police are working toward closing down the grow houses
that they already know about and many more they will undoubtedly uncover in
the future.

"There's a lot out there," said Burns.