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Catch The Crooks - That's All We Need
The Record | 08/14/2006

Marijuana grow-ops -- in particular, the indoor garden-variety grow-ops so often found within residential neighbourhoods across southern Ontario -- are a blight upon the landscape. They are illegal because the cultivation and sale of marijuana is illegal; they are a health issue cause of mould buildup; they are a safety hazard because of the threat of fouled, jerry-rigged electrical-bypass systems that can lead to deadly fires; and they are an enormous nuisance for police because they often coexist undetected in neighbourhoods of backsplits and bungalows, blending into a landscape of pets, preschoolers and unwary families.

But grow-ops do exist -- and will continue to exist -- because they are enormously profitable. So much expensive product can be generated from within a single dwelling that marijuana-growing criminals often will not hesitate to buy and use high-end, high-priced houses as camouflage for their activities.

Into this backdrop comes a recent report out of Guelph in which Rob Davis, chief of the Guelph police force, said that his department now has a website posted that lists every former grow-op dwelling in the city. The website, Chief Davis suggested, "is a proactive way to keep our citizens informed of where this activity has been happening in Guelph and to help ensure that the unsuspecting citizen . . . is not buying one of these places.''

The list includes 22 addresses in and around Guelph where police found grow-ops over a six-month period this year. Police in London publicize a similar list; police in Waterloo Region do not -- and we would suggest that they need be in no hurry to duplicate the Guelph initiative. Here's why:

Once a house is identified as a grow-op -- with the owner/renter charged and dealt with by the courts -- police involvement effectively comes to an end. The house, typically, is either sold off into the market or, in the case of a landlord caught unaware of a tenant's pot-growing activities, it might be renovated to bring the house up to standard for a subsequent tenant.

Whatever standards might need to be met for either resale or tenancy are those established by a municipality; they are the responsibility of the landlord, the potential new buyer or renter, and the realtors who may be involved. In the absence of continuing illegality, there is no role here for the police to continue to play.

This is one of those cases where good intentions can create regrettable outcomes. Police in Guelph do not publicize the addresses of every house in the city that may have either faulty wiring or dangerous mould -- and to make public the addresses of dwellings where a pot-growing crime may once have taken place just doesn't pass the test of close scrutiny.

Citizens want one thing from their police -- to investigate crimes, to catch criminals and to bring them to justice. They don't need a public website to identify an address where a crime was once committed. And they don't need whole neighbourhoods -- and law-abiding citizens' home values -- adversely affected as an unintended consequence of law-enforcement zeal.

 

dedbr

All about the money....homes values, I knew there was a skunk in the wood pile, law abiding citizens home values.

That was simple, I should of known that one without reading the whole article, huh?


Some Where In Ded Land.......All about the money, always is, always will be.....

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