CITY HALL BATTLES POT GROWERS

Just like every other Fraser Valley city, Abbotsford has been
afflicted by a plague of grow-ops. But in 2005 this city took a
unique approach to solving the problem.

City hall developed the Grow Op Pilot Public Safety Project, to best
use the authority of the municipality to start whittling away at the
estimated 700 marijuana growing operations in the city.

After a 90-day trial, the city decided that the program was so
effective that it should triple in size. After that, nine city
employees took to the streets, armed with public tips and heat
sensing equipment, to find the houses that contain marijuana cultivation sites.

Once grow-ops are found, the city can use its Controlled Substance
Property Bylaw to shut off the water supply to the house, thus making
the hydroponic operation inside unviable. The city can also prohibit
anyone living in the building while it is deemed to be in an unsafe state.

Service costs to dismantle a grow-op are charged back to the property
owner, regardless of whether he or she claims to have not been the
grower. The owner could also be charged for inspector visits and
ensuring that a property is brought back to a state where it passes
all building codes. The program does not cost the taxpayers, because
associated costs are billed back to the perpetrators.

"The message is this," warned Mayor Mary Reeves in announcing the
program being made permanent, "if you are thinking of having a
grow-op in your house, you might not want to do it in Abbotsford."

Meth labs were more in evidence during the past year, and Abbotsford
made the national news when police busted a giant lab on Lefeuvre
Road. It was capable of producing 12 kilograms, worth as much as $1.2
million on the street, every two days. Police seized $2.5 million
worth of meth in the bust.

The Health Canada chemist who helped dismantle the operation said it
as the biggest he had seen in 31 years.