Pubdate: Wed, 02 Apr 2014
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Authors: Kelly Sinoski and Matthew Robinson

36 FIRES IN B. C. OVER THE LAST 8 YEARS BLAMED ON POT GROWING

Even Licensed Operations Fail Due to Lack of Permits and Inspections: RCMP

Marijuana grow lamps were to blame for 36 fires in B. C. over the 
past eight years, according to Fire Chiefs' Association of B. C. 
data, and nearly a quarter of those blazes struck homes that had been 
licensed to grow medical marijuana.

Risk of fire, such as the one that burned a massive medical marijuana 
operation in Surrey to the ground Monday, is just one of many hazards 
cited by the federal government in its battle against a temporary 
injunction granted by the Federal Court last week that allows 
licensed users to keep growing plants in their homes.

"Given that marijuana growing operations require the use of high 
powered lights that are not designed for residential home use, and 
the fact that marijuana plants require 12- 18 hours of light a day, 
it is not surprising that these operations would face an increased 
risk of fire," states a Federal Court submission compiled for Health Canada.

Medical marijuana users had sued Ottawa because they are concerned 
about the cost and quality of bud that is to be grown by commercial 
manufacturers under the government's redesigned licensed marijuana scheme.

But according to the federal submission, the old system simply 
doesn't work, and a startling high risk of fire is just one reason 
why. According to the government, a 2010 RCMP report on medical 
marijuana grow operations across the country found fires up to 24 
times more likely in homes with grow operations than those without.

The growing operations, reads the report, "are being set up with 
lighting and hydroponic growing equipment, and are being installed 
without the proper permits or inspections, most often in a 
residential neighbourhood."

Those findings are consistent with data from the fire chiefs' 
association, which points to faulty wiring, grow lamps and lights as catalysts.

Surrey RCMP Const. Shane Holmquist was quoted in the federal 
submission that he had documented in licensed grow operations 
"obviously unsafe wiring and the presence of ' CO2 burners,' which 
are essentially the equivalent of operating a barbecue inside your 
home." He said the devices have been suspended precariously from 
ceilings and the open flames from the burners had resulted in 
injuries to growers.

But it is not just small-scale marijuana operations that put growers 
and neighbours at risk.

Monday's fire that tore through the Port Kells warehouse, which had 
housed three medical marijuana licences, was just one of three fires 
to hit large licensed medical marijuana grow operations in B. C. in 
the last few months, according to the federal submission.

Police and fire officials are still investigating the cause of the 
latest fire, which Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis called suspicious. 
Neighbours of the former mushroom farm told The Sun they had seen the 
tenants removing equipment from the site in the days leading up to the fire.

Sgt. Dale Carr, a spokesman for the Surrey RCMP, said in an email 
Tuesday that Mounties would join the fire inspector at the scene to 
help determine whether the cause of the fire was suspicious. If so, 
said Carr, police would launch a criminal investigation.

Carr said police would only know if the buds had been harvested from 
the plants before the blaze hit the building had they been monitoring 
the operation. But he added that under the old federal system, police 
were not told the locations of licensed growing operations and 
Mounties only knew of sites they came across during the course of 
their regular duties. Carr would not say if this was one of those locations.

"We would not be in a position to identify whether the police have 
had dealing with this property or not," he said.

Investigations by police over the past decade have revealed many 
criminal abuses of medical marijuana licences, according to Health 
Canada's Federal Court submission. It noted that abuse may stem from 
growers flouting their legal limit of pot plants and diverting excess 
product to the illicit drug market as a way to offset the high costs 
of electricity, equipment and chemicals used in cultivating the 
plant. But even when growers stuck to their plant count, according to 
the submission, they were able to grow "monster plants" that yield 
enormous quantities of marijuana.

A 2012 RCMP report found that not only were individual licence 
holders exploiting the outgoing marijuana regime, but organized 
criminals were starting to infiltrate it as well.

"Gaining access to or control of a medical marihuana grow operation 
is highly desirable for criminal networks due to the array of 
opportunities it would present for the illicit production and 
diversion of high-grade medical marihuana," read the report.

At the same time, according to the submission, the "skunk-like odour" 
of marijuana is like an olfactory beacon that a growing operation is 
nearby, putting neighbours at risk from a rising number of violent 
"grow rips," many that involve guns and knives, and some that have 
resulted in death. Between 2007 and 2012, the number of reported grow 
rips in B. C. has risen from two per year to 18 per year, Holmquist 
said, and the 2012 RCMP report found nearly one in five reported 
incidents of violence and home invasions associated with marijuana 
grow operations involved licensed operations.

According to Health Canada's Federal Court submission, many, if not 
all, the harms associated with illicit marijuana grow operations are 
also applicable to legal grows. Beyond the added risk of crime and 
fire, residential grow sites are also more exposed to mould and toxic 
chemicals, and put at risk children living in or near the sites.

"The issues we're dealing with are exactly what we're seeing; there's 
been no inspection, people are growing and selling more than they 
should and they become illegal grow operations and feed into the 
international crime piece," Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said. "When 
you've got fire safety issues it really saddles the municipality, 
with not only the cost but the public safety issues that we deal with.

"We need to be clear. Anybody that wants to use medicinal marijuana, 
there's no issue at all; but let's put some proper measures in place 
so the inspections can happen."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom