HTTP/1.0 200 OK Content-Type: text/html Business With Grow-Op Loses Licence 
Pubdate: Wed, 06 Feb 2008
Source: Richmond Review, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Richmond Public Library
Contact:  http://www.richmondreview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/704
Author: Matthew Hoekstra
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

BUSINESS WITH GROW-OP LOSES LICENCE

Operating a grow-op and keeping shoddy records were grounds used by 
city council to cancel a business licence and suspend another on Monday.

At a special council meeting, city council revoked the licence for 
Dream Garden Supplies, 11579 Bridgeport Rd., and handed a seven-day 
suspension to We Do Recycling, 130-1566 Eburne Rd.

Last August, Richmond RCMP raided Dream Garden Supplies, finding 
marijuana and remnants of an apparent grow-op. A followup city 
inspection found numerous building code deficiencies.

Vince Phung and Trinh Q. Phung took over the hydroponic garden supply 
business in 2004 and gave it its current name.

During the RCMP inspection, officers found a stack of garbage bags 
containing loose marijuana mixed with plant stems and dirt. They also 
found three boxes packed with 235 marijuana plants.

At the rear of the store, officers found a room outfitted with 
equipment commonly used to grow the illegal plants.

"I have performed surveillance on this store and found that almost 
100 per cent of the clientele has some previous police contact in 
regards to the production of (marijuana)," wrote RCMP Const. Robert 
Fay in a letter to the city.

"To continue to allow businesses like this one to operate and 
blatantly break the law...is a serious breach of the public trust..."

We Do Recycling received a less harsher sentence for its activities.

According to a staff report from chief licence inspector Amarjeet 
Rattan, inspectors found numerous failures to operate under the terms 
of its scrap metal dealer licence.

The business failed to "maintain its proper name and address" on both 
sides of company vehicles, bought scrap metal offsite, operated 
outside permitted hours and failed to tag scrap items.

The city imposed strict measures on scrap metal dealers in January 
2007, to stem the growth of metal theft-six months after We Do 
Recycling began operating.

Howard Lu represented the business at a show cause hearing and, 
through lawyer Logan Nainaar, owned up to the violations but pleaded 
with the city not to recommend a licence inspection. Lu said he 
wasn't familiar with operating the business, and that his partner 
Simon, who had since went to China, was.

The business had already received fines totalling $2,500 before 
Monday's suspension. The fines have since been paid.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom