Pubdate: Wed, 01 Dec 2010
Source: Airdrie Echo (CN AB)
Copyright: 2010 Osprey Media
Contact: http://www.airdrieecho.com/feedback1/LetterToEditor.aspx
Website: http://www.airdrieecho.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1558
Author: James Emery
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

POT PARADISE

What effects are the massive marijuana grow-operations having on the 
city and its neighbourhoods?

Behind the tin-foiled windows and underneath the living room devoid 
of any furnishings, a dangerous operation is being conducted.

It's an operation that often goes undetected by police and it's one 
that is very lucrative to the organized criminals who run it.

But it's also an operation that leaves a lasting impact on the homes 
the criminals take over and the communities they inhabit.

Last week, the Airdrie RCMP uncovered the biggest marijuana 
growing-operations the city has ever seen.

A raid on a Morningside home Nov. 24 resulted in the seizure of 661 
marijuana plants, worth an estimated $826,000.

In recent weeks, local cops have unearthed several marijuana 
grow-operations in the city that took nearly $2 million worth of 
marijuana off the streets.

And while it would seem Airdrie is becoming more susceptible to 
marijuana grow-ops, one Mount Royal University (MRU) professor says 
the problem isn't an Airdrie specific one.

"The reality is that (grow-ops) are probably in any community that 
meets a certain kind of profile," explains Doug King, an associate 
professor in Department of Justice Studies at MRU. "Grow-operations 
will generally hit, more often than not, new areas."

King says it's in those newer neighbourhoods that most inhabitants 
clear out for work during the weekday.

Couple that with what King calls, 'a 1950s mentality' towards how 
some residents view their own neighbourhood, new areas seem to be the 
perfect location for organized criminals to set up shop.

"We might have a 1950s idea of what's taking place in a neighbourhood 
during the daytime in the middle of the week," he explains. "The idea 
is that someone is home that can look after your neighbours and spot 
anything unusual.

"Relying on neighbours to spot something going on is probably a 1950s idea."

It's all about social cohesion, King says, and the criminals know 
that "" newer areas aren't socially cohesive when residents first move in.

"That just part of the reality of large, suburbia types of 
communities where people don't know one another and don't choose to 
know one another," King says. "That's just the way life is these days."

Sgt. Tom Hanson heads the Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams' 
(ALERT) Green Team South, which is mandated to locate, disrupt and 
dismantle organized crime activity, specifically grow-operations, in 
the province.

Working as an integrated unit comprised of Calgary Police Service 
members and RCMP members, the specialized unit has been kept busy 
busting local grows ops in Airdrie.

Hanson maintains marijuana grow-ops aren't only found in new communities.

"We find them in established areas, in older areas and in rural 
locations," Hanson says. "(These criminals) are opportunistic "" 
they're looking to put their grow-ops up in a whole bunch of 
different areas, wherever they think they can get away with it.

"These are all associated to organized crime "" these aren't just mom 
and pop operations."

But what bothers Hanson the most is the blatant disregard for the 
safety of the neighbourhood these criminals set up shop in.

"They have no regard for the safety of the community and the well 
being of the neighbourhood," Hanson says. "These just aren't the 
types of operations that are victimless "" they leave a trail of 
destruction in their wake."

Hanson pointed to a massive fire in Calgary's Citadel neighbourhood 
in December 2009 that was sparked by a grow operation and burned down 
five homes.

Hanson says grow-ops often leave lasting problems for the homes 
they're set up in "" mould, structural issues, electrical problems 
and plumbing concerns are common repercussions and the residences are 
often condemned by health inspectors.

The problem, King says, is locating and unearthing the grow-operations.

"They've got this process down incredibly well in terms of how to set 
up a house, how to do it, and how to keep it (undetected)," King 
says. "You could be living beside a grow operation and not know 
something is going on."

And that's why marijuana grow-ops can be hard to track down and expose.

"I can't give you a sense of how many grow-operations there are in a 
community like Airdrie or even a community like Calgary, but you can 
be darn sure there's a heck of a lot more that are being operated 
that are never, ever detected by the police or neighbours," King says.

It's part of what King calls, 'the dark figure of crime.'

"We don't know how much crime is going on out there," King says. "We 
only know the stuff that we catch."

Airdrie RCMP Const. Robert Frizzell says the RCMP's Crime Reduction 
Unit (CRU), along with the General Investigation Section (GIS), is 
combating the issue locally in Airdrie.

But it comes at a cost.

"Grow-ops cost an extensive amount of resources for us because we 
have to put surveillance on that house for an extended period of 
time," Frizzell says. "We have to ensure officer and public safety 
and that requires multiple members."

Frizzell says introducing the CRU and GIS to specifically target this 
type of criminal activity, among other concerns, has made a drastic 
impact in recent months.

"These grows have been here, we just haven't had the resources or 
time to shut them down," he says. "With these specialized units, we 
can dedicate resources to shutting down these grows and making our 
neighbourhoods safer.

"At the end of the day, it costs a lot of money but it goes towards 
making Airdrie a safer place with safer homes and safer communities."

Both Hanson and Frizzell say police will continue to try and tackle 
the marijuana grow op problem in Airdrie.

"The more we're looking the more we're finding," Hanson says. "We're 
making efforts to locate and dismantle these operations, make the 
neighbourhoods safe and get the houses that they're growing marijuana 
in remediated properly so they're ultimately made safe for human 
habitation again."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom