Pubdate: Sat, 22 Jan 2011 Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Copyright: 2011 Times Colonist Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481 Author: Douglas Quan Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) HOMEOWNERS FUMING OVER GROW-OP SEARCH LAW A controversial B.C. law that allows municipalities to inspect homes using large amounts of electricity has helped make neighbourhoods safer and thwarted marijuana-grow operations, says a criminology professor whose research triggered the law. But his comments are unlikely to move outraged citizens in one community, who are girding for a fight with their local council and threatening a class-action lawsuit -- complaining that they've been slapped with unjust and excessive inspection fees and unfairly labelled as criminals. A change in 2006 to the B.C. Safety Standards Act gave municipalities direct access to electricity-consumption data from B.C. Hydro, and the ability to identify homes with unusually high power usage. Armed with that data, public-safety teams, consisting of building, fire and electrical experts, have been inspecting some of these properties after giving homeowners 24- to 48-hours notice. The inspectors typically look for tampered wiring and plumbing, overloaded circuits, mould buildup, pesticides, holes in walls and extra ventilation ducts -- possible indications of a grow op. But even if a grow op isn't found -- which is the case most of the time -- authorities can still find that a home is in violation of safety bylaws and require the homeowner to fix the problems. "There has been a tendency for people to view this as nothing more [than] a backdoor to get at grow ops. This a complete misrepresentation," said Darryl Plecas, a criminology professor at the University of the Fraser Valley. While the bylaws have helped make a dent in the number of grow ops, the driving force behind them is safety, said Plecas, whose research has found that grow-ops constitute a fire hazard because of the way electrical wiring is configured. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom