Pubdate: Wed, 23 Mar 2005 Source: Almaguin News (CN ON) Copyright: Almaguin News 2005 Contact: http://www.almaguinnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3732 Author: Laurel J. Campbell Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/grow+operations GROW OPERATIONS RAISE HEALTH & SAFETY CONCERNS ALMAGUIN: "House For Sale: Previous Marijuana Grow Operation, Any Offer Accepted." For sale signs like this could soon spring up in the real estate section with the increasing prevalence of in-house grow operations. A property, such as 6 Anderson Street in Sundridge, has been estimated by neighbours as having sold last year for a price of approximately $140,000, but today it may be un-saleable and is almost assuredly uninsurable. "I would seriously doubt you could sell that house if your life depended on it," said Powassan Century 21 real estate broker Debbie Burg. "For one thing, if the operation has been there for any length of time, the house will never pass an inspection (due to the possible presence of mould as a result of the heat and humidity needed for maximum plant growth). Secondly, the vendor is required by law to disclose that the house has been used for an illegal purpose. These are not the sort of details most people want when they purchase a home." Bill Moore of Callander, an engineer and house inspector, said, "If there's a whole bunch of mould, then it's almost impossible to get out. If the operation's been there long enough and mould has permeated the walls, then all you can try to do is strip off the drywall and insulation, take it right back from basement to roof and literally rebuild the house from the inside." Fans and excessive heating used in grow operations "just puts the mould right into the drywall and through to the insulation," Brown said "It's my understanding that you would not be allowed to list such a house for sale until you could prove all the mould was eliminated." Brown suggests that if you own a house where a grow operation has been ongoing, "that home will have no value and no insurance coverage and would best be torn down and rebuilt." Sundridge lawyer Michael A. Hardy agrees. "Probably the best you could hope for would be that the building gets struck with lightning," he said. "As a landlord, you could bring a class action suit against the renters, but as criminals we assume they are in jail, and unless you can prove they have assets other then those acquired from illegal activity, they have no money to compensate you with." Hardy suggests that perhaps the property could be sold for its value as a building lot, provided the purchasers were aware of the building's history. "You might find someone willing to do the repair work themselves in order to acquire an economical home, if you were lucky," he said. But even with a major renovation, chances are slim a former grow operation house will ever be insurable. "Current insurance policies are excluding both mould and grow operations specifically," said Powassan insurance agent Armond Despres. "These exclusions list fungi, spores and (production and growth of ) controlled drugs and substances." While Despres says many of his customers laugh when he points out these exclusions, "you would be lucky to find one company in 100 that doesn't currently list these, and even if you did, I would suspect by the time the policy is up for renewal, these clauses will have been added. They are becoming a standard in the insurance industry." Those landlords who find themselves in possession of a grow operation house "are literally out in the cold" when it comes to insurance, he said. "I know that grow operations have caused major damage in what had been very expensive properties." And while other uninsured disasters like earthquakes may result in government assistance for home owners, "I'm pretty sure the government isn't going to help you out in the case of an illegal drug operation," Despres said. "I think you would have to consider the structure a total loss." While health implications from mould in homes is a concern of the local health units, they only become involved when requested and each home is evaluated on a case by case basis. In cases where the home owner is directly involved in the grow operation, the health unit is not involved, explained North Bay and District Health Program Manager David Brown. "Health units are concerned with public domiciles, homes that are being rented, where at the request of the tenant we would provide a risk assessment based on the extent of the structural presence of the mould and risk factor that mould presents to the specific individuals living in the home," Brown said. The health unit makes no distinction between mould resulting from the indoor production of marijuana plants and mould generally found in homes for a variety of other reasons. Health unit documentation says that the most common types of mould are generally not hazardous to healthy individuals. However, people who have asthma, hay fever, or other allergies, or have impaired immune systems because of other conditions, are more likely to be affected. The most common symptoms are nose and eye irritation, cough, congestion, and aggravations of asthma. In most day to day circumstances, mould exposure can cause allergic and irritative symptoms in the respiratory system, and not serious, life threatening or long-lasting effects. Rick Tass of the North Bay OPP says officers are concerned about the affects of a grow operation environment. "As an officer who has attended these scenes, I can tell you that there's a lot of moisture that results if the operation has been there for a substantial amount of time," he said. "You can feel the moisture in the air and you can smell the mould even with the smell of the marijuana." In fact, police fear of grow operation exposure has resulted in Canada's police chiefs calling on the federal government to launch a study into the health effects on officers who attend at grow operations. The chiefs claim that large amounts of moisture in the confined spaces of these operations create and encourage the growth of many micro-organisms in addition to mould. Grow-ops use large amounts of pesticides and fungicides to keep plants healthy and between the mould and the poisons, they say it's not hard for someone exposed to these operations to get seriously ill and claim that long-term exposure to some of these pesticides can cause cancers, nervous-system disorders and breathing problems. But as South River real estate broker Chris Hundley points out, "A lot of the damage has to do with the extent of the grow operation and how long it has been going. In some places, the severity is limited and locally, most of the operators have bought the house" and are therefore solely responsible for the property's future. No one contacted by Almaguin News could estimate how long a grow operation would have to be ongoing before mould damage would be considered extensive. "In many cases these operations are backed by a lot of money," said Hundley, making property values of little interest to the property owner when compared to the potential income of the operation. In cases such as this, the property could become the responsibility of the municipality. "Depending on the situation, the municipality could always assume the property for the back taxes," said Hardy. However, it then falls on the municipality to assume the liability of disclosing illegal use in the event of resale which would trigger the insurance exemptions...and the cycle continues. For landlords, Hardy advises the best protection "is to be as scrupulous as possible, scrutinize all potential tenants, check references, drop in on them at their current place of residents, anything to protect yourself." Above all, he suggests those in the rental housing business "don't margin yourselves to the point where you can't afford to have a home vacant for a few months," he advised, "because when you have to rent to the first person who comes along, that's when you stand a good chance of being stung." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin