The cultivation of marijuana has reached "epidemic proportions," and poses a threat to public safety, says the commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, Julian Fantino. At a news conference recently, the OPP announced that in an eight-week span, it had investigated 220 grow operations, resulting in 110 charges against 56 people, and had seized and destroyed 118,443 marijuana plants.
"Marijuana grow-ops pose a real threat to both public and police safety," said Fantino. In outdoor cultivations, police say they discovered an alarming increase in the number of loaded weapons and booby traps that are being used to ward off police.
"With marijuana production being a multi-billion dollar business in North America, there are groups that will go to any extremes to protect their venture," says police. "There are also groups known as 'pot pirates' who will steal marijuana grows, which makes the situation even more dangerous for the public and law enforcement agencies."
Real estate agents are at the forefront of the battle against grow operations, both outdoor and indoor. In Alberta, a new study commissioned by the Alberta Real Estate Association is offering guidelines for standards to clean up properties that were used for grow-ops.
"Properties used as illegal drug operations pose long-term health and safety hazards, due to the presence of contaminants such as mould and chemicals," says Tang Lee, who led the study. Lee is a professor at the Faculty of Environmental Design at the University of Calgary.
In Alberta and Ontario, as well as most other provinces across Canada, there are currently no universal standards for remediation of properties used as grow-ops. There isn't even a mechanism in place to allow consumers or real estate agents to find out if a property was ever deemed to be a grow-op by police.
People living in smaller communities across the country may think that grow-ops are mainly an urban problem, but that's incorrect, says Ron Esch, CEO of the Calgary Real Estate Board. "In fact, the problem exists and is growing in communities across the province – large and small, urban and rural alike – which is why it is so important a consistent provincial standard of remediation for these properties is established."
Tang says while the recommendations in the study are specific to Alberta, they could also be adapted to work in other provinces. The study includes guidelines for identifying, assessing and remediating the contaminants created by grow-ops. These include procedures for structural repairs, air scrubbing and air testing.
"Operators of illegal drug operations consider the living conditions and damage to the property unimportant compared to the potential revenues of the illegal operation," says Tang. "Extensive alterations to the property are often made, and the property is typically unhygienic with chemical spills, feces and other debris strewn throughout. When the property is seized, restoration can be extensive and expensive."
The report says marijuana grow-ops require modifications to power, lighting, mechanical, plumbing and structural systems. Increased humidity in the home leads to mould growth. Exhaust vents from the furnace and hot water tank are often disconnected so the carbon dioxide can filter out and help the plants grow, says the report. This also brings in carbon monoxide, which can build to dangerous levels. Insecticides, fungicides, solvents and other chemicals used in grow-ops can be absorbed by the walls, floors and furniture in the house, and even in concrete basement floors, says the report.
The types of "booby traps" that pose a hazard to people who might innocently enter a grow-op property include "spring-loaded knives and guns; light switches, refrigerators, VCRs or other electrical appliances wired to explosive devices; spikes in entranceways; and live wires on door handles," says the study. Police and fire departments are trained to recognize and deactivate these traps.
The report also includes recommendations for education, communication and organization to help bureaucrats deal with the problem of grow-ops.
Some of the report's suggestions for further research could be controversial. For example, it says "placing a caveat on properties previously used as illegal drug operations as they do in British Columbia should be considered. The caveat would remain on the property's history in the same manner as extensive damage to a car remains on its history even after it is repaired." However, the report acknowledges that this may place a sigma on the property even if it has been remediated to a healthy state.
Another suggestion that won't go over well with real estate professionals would "mandate building inspections by qualified building inspectors trained in recognizing previously used marijuana grow operations" to make sure that properties previously used as a grow-op don't go undetected.
The report also says, "Property owners and real estate agents currently have a moral obligation to disclose pertinent information about a property such as past use as an illegal drug operation. Steps to make disclosure a legal obligation should be considered."
But Lee says that the first line of defense is neighbours reporting any suspicious activity in their community, and landlords regularly inspecting their rental properties to make sure they are not being used for illegal means. Today's Local Market Conditions Report
