NOVEMBER 26, 2004: THE TORONTO SUN

In a Six-Part Series, Alan Cairns and a Team of Sun Reporters Examine the Epidemic of Marijuana Grow Houses That Has Afflicted the GTA With Great Cost to All of Us

UNTIL NOW, only overworked and underheard cops - and a few experts - understood the full, tragic scope of the Greater Toronto Area's rapidly growing menace. 

The menace of illegal marijuana grow houses. 

A month-long investigation by the Toronto Sun into this burgeoning, illegal, multi-billion-dollar industry has uncovered stunning facts about indoor weed farms and the messes and costs they leave behind, as listed today on Page 3. 

In the Sun's special six-part series that kicks off today, we will detail these findings and show just how pervasive, how outrageous - and how harmful - the whole grow-op mess has become. 

In the next few years, thousands more illegal indoor hydroponic farms will spring up across Greater Toronto unless something "absolutely dramatic" is done to stop them, warns Prof.  Darryl Plecas, a criminologist with the University College of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia. 

"Toronto is in for a rough ride ...  you ain't seen nothing yet," Plecas said. 

Other experts agree, some saying the number of grow homes in Toronto could multiply 10-fold in the coming years. 

Only at that point, when Toronto produces enough of its "Beasters" variation of "B.C.  Bud" marijuana to meet the demand in the United States, will it likely level off. 

In Toronto alone this year, more than 280 homes have been busted - double the 140 in 2003. 

The Green Tide report, produced by the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police earlier this year, estimates Ontario has 15,000 active grow houses that annually produce more than 500,000 kg of weed ( 550 tonnes ), generating up to $5 billion in revenue. 

OPP Det.  Staff-Sgt.  Rick Barnum testified this week at the trial of Michael DeCicco, known as the "chief" of gardeners at a giant weed farm in the former Molson's brewery plant in Barrie, that Ontario has 15,000 to 25,000 grow houses. 

From Toronto to Hamilton, Barrie to Oshawa, organized crime gangs - mostly Vietnamese and Chinese ethnic gangs, but also Hells Angels and the traditional Italian mob - are setting up grow houses faster than police can tear them down. 

An average two-storey suburban home has enough floor space for weed growth to net $1 million profit a year, police say. 

The unfettered growth of criminal gangs is one of the far-reaching societal costs of grow houses. 

Police say the gangs are spiriting vast profits from exported weed into imported cocaine, guns and cash. 

It is significant, police say, that 76 firearms were seized from Ontario grow-ops from 2000 to 2003. 

York Regional Police found a man shot to death in one grow house. 

But the weed gangs have every reason to keep growing.  Canada's laws are so lax and sentences so lenient, that the low percentage of growers who get caught and sentenced spend on average only 4.5 months in jail, or get fined $1,500. 

The budding grow house problem appears to have been lost in the ongoing debate about decriminalizing of possession of small amounts of marijuana. 

The federal Liberal government has tabled legislation in the House of Commons that would see possession of up to 15 grams of marijuana ( enough to make anywhere from 30 to 105 joints ) treated as if it were a traffic ticket - -- no criminal record, no jail time.  Only fines of a few hundred dollars. 

Indoor Jungles

While the proposed law also doubles the maximum prison terms for big-time growers, critics say a failure to include minimum sentences renders the new terms useless. 

Meanwhile, law-abiding folk are being hit in the wallet by way of increased taxes, hydro costs and insurance premiums. 

The Green Tide report suggests grow houses cost Ontario $98.6 million in insurance, police, justice and trade expenditures in 2002. 

Yet Toronto-area police, fire, hydro, prosecutors, building inspectors and health officials are still vexed in trying to come to grips with the emerging problem. 

Thousands of properties have been gutted and modified by marijuana growers and turned into humid indoor jungles so that vast gardens of hydroponic weed can be grown. 

Many once-beautiful homes are left virtually unrecognizable as growers tear down walls and rip off doors for easy access and watering.  Growers also tamper with electrical circuits and bore through ceilings and walls to steal electrical power from the hydro mains.  They ruin furnaces by turning them into air vents. 

The Green Tide report estimates 45% of all grow operations stole hydro power by boring through basement floors or walls and linking on to the main hydro line. 

The thefts not only power the scores of 1,000-watt lights used in the grow process, but also hide the amount of power being used and, therefore, hide the grow house itself. 

The Electrical Safety Authority, which ovesees electrical safety in Ontario, warns that grow operations might seriously exacerbate chronic summertime electricity shortages and increase the risk of brownouts and blackouts, such as the massive power outage that shut down most of eastern North America last year. 

Hydro companies also warn that grow-ops contribute to power surges that damage computers and electrical units. 

Hydro companies say an average grow-op steals up to $2,000 in power monthly, or up to $35.8 million provincewide.  It is estimated that Markham Hydro customers paid an additional $50 for grow house hydro theft in 2002. 

It is also estimated that grow-ops are 40 times more likely to have a fire than normal residential homes. 

Firefighters attending blazes are in constant danger from the crude hydro bypasses and booby traps.  "It's is just pure luck that a firefighter hasn't been killed yet," Plecas said. 

The growers themselves are also in danger. 

In British Columbia, for example, 15 growers have been electrocuted while working or living in grow houses.  No such accidental deaths have yet been reported in Ontario. 

The Green Tide report said in the past three years, Ontario police spent $33.8 million probing and dismantling grow-ops. 

"Taxpayers, of course, are likely to ultimately bear the cost of this public expenditure," the report said. 

Grow-ops cost Ontario's justice system $6.7 million in 2002. 

And there are many intangible societal costs. 

Green Tide said 285 kids were found living in Ontario grow-ops that were busted last year, but that the actual figure could be as high as 2,845.  There are concerns of the kids being exposed to fumes from fertilizer and pesticides, as well as to high amounts of carbon dioxide. 

Landlords who unwittingly rent their homes to criminals and naive home buyers can be stuck with massive clean-up costs. 

Yet real estate brokers, bankers and insurance companies appear to be dancing around the issues. 

Many grow houses end up being structurally wrecked.  But the most damage is done by the vast amounts of mould that builds on damp floors, roofs and inside wall cavities. 

Mould is known as a serious health hazard.  At best it can cause the onset of major allergies.  At worst it can kill. 

Hydro Bypass

Until earlier this month, Toronto Police would bust a grow house, notify Toronto Hydro of any bypass, remove the plants and lights from the house -- and simply walk away. 

Now Toronto has forced the owners of busted grow-ops to get a strucutral and environmental inspection before the home is put back on the market. 

Councillor Mike Del Grande said he hopes the protocol will prompt absentee landlords to be more careful about renting out their house in the first place and to monitor their tenants. 

The city is also erecting lawn signs that inform the neighbourhood of these orders. 

The mould issue has become a major factor in real estate sales. 

While real estate agents are told they must disclose any criminal use of the house, there is no legal obligation on sellers to tell the agent about the home's history. 

The Canadian Real Estate Association told agents in a recent circular that listing agents are only obligated to disclose a listed home was a former grow home if there is a known and "actual material latent defect," or if the buyer expresses a specific concern or the purchase agreement contains representations that it was not used as a grow house.  The CREA, however, says it is a realtor's responsibility to be as "informed as possible."

Over the next six days, we'll go into greater detail on all of these issues.