Councillors Move to Shut Down Grow Ops

Monday, October 19, 2009 09:10 PM

Prince George, B.C.- City Councillors Dave Wilbur and Cameron Stolz are pushing to have Prince George adopt the kind of special teams that were used in Surrey to reduce the grow op activity in that city.

A motion presented to council this evening outlined the reasons for their request:

“Whereas the City of Prince George has seen significant increase in gang activity over the last two years.

Whereas the RCMP has identified an increased number of grow operations in rural communities and remote areas in Canada, and notes that marijuana trafficking remains highly profitable for organized crime. Far from being small networks, British Columbia Organized Crime Agency estimated that organized crime groups control 85% of British Columbia's marijuana trade.

* Information is derived from: RCMP Criminal Intelligence Directorate (2008)

Whereas Grow Operations create significant electrical hazards

Whereas the locations of former Grow Operations create an aesthetic and safety issue within neighbourhoods

Whereas homebuyers want assurances that they are moving into a safe home”

The Councillors requested staff bring back to Council by December 14th, 2009 a report advising how the City of Prince George can implement an 'Electrical and Fire Safety Inspection Team' comparable to the City of Surrey, and the timeline needed to do so.

Surrey’s electrical and fire inspection teams cost about $40 thousand dollars a month to operate. The three month pilot project saw teams of fire safety inspectors and electrical inspectors visit homes suspected of being grow ops. The visit resulted in warning letters advising the site would have to be brought up to building code, or the power was shut off until the occupants could prove the electrical changes had been made.

The program was successful in shutting down a number of grow ops, so successful in fact, that the City of Surrey developed a guide books to help other communities in their battle against grow ops “ Community Response to Marijuana Grow Operations: A Guide towards Promising Practices” and “Responding to Marijuana Grow Operations : A Community Handbook” are available for any community looking for ideas on how to shut down these sites.

In a news release issued last month when the handbooks were ready for distribution, Mayor Dianne Watts is quoted as saying “The Handbook shares what we have learned about dealing with this problem over the past five years.” One of the co-author s of the handbooks, Dr. Darryl Plecas of the University of the Fraser Valley was quoted “Surrey’s success may mean that the problem has been displaced somewhat to other jurisdictions, There is no doubt that other communities need to take advantage of the approach that Surrey has developed.”

The City ofPrince George has been trying to develop a similar program and will be ableto come back to Council with an update on that project's progress on December 14th. There have been some issues about ensuring there is no conflict with existing RCMP investigations. The process of marrying hydro records to suspect sites is in the works, as is a cost recovery plan.

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Posted on Monday, October 19, 2009 09:10 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: DPJ on October 19 2009 10:06 PM

Tear the drug houses down!!!!!

Posted by: Clean on October 19 2009 10:42 PM

How about using the Bylaw office to check on complaints oh waite...........

They are useless

Make the Bylaw office do their jobs before creating a whole new department.

Posted by: MrPG on October 19 2009 10:50 PM

Grow Ops aren't a bylaw issue, they're a police issue.

Posted by: lmorge on October 19 2009 11:39 PM

If you lived besides one, you'd be appealing to both police and the city. To any organisation that will contribute to their demise.

Posted by: getajob on October 19 2009 11:45 PM

Lesser of two Evils

I wish they would give the grow Op idea a rest and clean up all these crack dealers on Alward st and Burden st first!

We "Locals" have reported this so many times and nothing is getting done!

Slum lords renting to known dealers and the powers to be don’t give 2 shits.

Same people on stolen bikes dealing! YES STOLEN they took mine…..Drug traffic at times can be every 15 minutes.

The one known dealer just got released from jail and is back at it!

So lets clean up the crack dealers and shacks as we cant even give away our homes with these types for neighbours!

Complaints have been filed by many of us.
I feel that the city should give us a cut in taxes, as our home value is in the toilet now!
I'm glad that maybe something will get done but, i rather a grow op nearby than a crack shack!

Posted by: chrislivingdowntown on October 19 2009 11:59 PM

dumb idea just feeds law enforcement. I think crack shacks is more like it. Crazy pot laws. We are so missing out on hemp altogether.

Posted by: muckermike on October 20 2009 4:38 AM

I agree with getajob.How many people that are committing violent crimes downtown are on pot? Focus on shutting down crackshacks and maybe you can save downtown>

Posted by: CaringSoul on October 20 2009 8:38 AM

I agree with Getajob and Muckermike. Pot is not the problem in society it is the harder drugs that lead to violent crimes. The powers that be have always tried to fool people by trying to make us believe that pot is equivalent to crack, meth and heroin. I have lots of business type friends who enjoy pot and no one is the wiser. They own fancy houses, cars and have great jobs they go to everyday. We are talking about people who are in their 50's who have smoked pot since they were teenagers. Most of them rarely drink. If you think that I believe the propaganda that the police force and society tries to push. Nadda! My friends are the proof that it is all bull. :} To each their own and I would chose pot over alcohol any day. At least on pot you dont slur your words, stagger or lose all bodily functions.

Posted by: Loki on October 20 2009 9:33 AM

They are chasing the pot because it is easier. There are more of them, they are more visible, they are not not as volatile when apprehended.

Posted by: gus on October 20 2009 9:41 AM

Let's face it. It is the easy thing to do to show one is doing something. In fact, they are doing very little. It is not as if these people are not paying for the energy they use. If the houses mildew, so be it. Is anyone looking into making sure that those people who have had water spills due to dishwasher, hot water tank, washing machines, etc. malfunctions have made the appropriate repairs before they sell their houses? How about those who have humidifiers and run them to high so that windows have condensation on them and the water does damage to the walls. Or those who have ice dams on their roofs and water comes into the house on the outside walls with mildew showing up on the upper parts of those walls.

This is not to protect any homeowners. Who are they kidding? If it were, they should be inspecting for a ton of other infractions, especially older houses. Who are they kidding?

It states: "The visit resulted in warning letters advising the site would have to be brought up to building code, or the power was shut off until the occupants could prove the electrical changes had been made."

And what happens if they find a grow op? The grow op is shut down? There would no longer be a drain on the power? The electrical system would then meet the code?

Posted by: lmorge on October 20 2009 10:50 AM

You all have missed the mark. The pot industry fuels the crack/herion/extasy/meth industry.

Posted by: EatsBushesShoots&Leaves on October 20 2009 11:15 AM

Headline makes it sound the city council is running their own grow-ops! heh heh

Posted by: caranmacil on October 20 2009 11:39 AM

They have to pursue grow ops because, like it or not they are still against the law. Discussions of the legalization issue are not to the point. WHile pot is illegal, grow ops should be pursued. Using building code regulations as a hammer isnt really dealing with the issue. It isnt necessary for a grow op to be significantly in violation of building codes if the house/shop in question was wired properly in the first place, and has a 200 amp service. If you are really after grow ops then shut them down as soon as they are reported, instead of observing them for a while to get evidence of the people running them. You dont get jail time for these folk anyway so why piss off the neighbourhood by waiting?
I agree with lmorge. The issue isnt whether pot is legal, it is whether it funds organized crime. It does.

Posted by: NMG on October 20 2009 6:47 PM

I agree with lmorge and caranmacil. The debate about whether pot should be legalized is a completely different issue than what we are talking about with this initiative.

IMHO, anyone who thinks that any grow op of size is there simply to service the folks in a city who like to toke up every now and then, is fooling themselves. For the most part, grow ops are a tool used by organized crime to create cash flow and as a way to produce a product that they can trade for guns and hard drugs. Once it falls into that realm, you can't just say "well it's only pot, what's the big deal". It's too late for that. You have to treat it like all of the other illicit products associated with organized crime because that's exactly what it is.