cannabisnews.com: Insurers Eye Thermal Imager in Pot War





Insurers Eye Thermal Imager in Pot War
Posted by CN Staff on June 21, 2002 at 07:12:48 PT
By Daryl-Lynn Carlson, National Post 
Source: National Post
A high-tech, infrared heat detection device could become Ontario's latest weapon in the war on drugs. The target: indoor marijuana-growing operations -- in a neighbourhood likely near you.It's not the police eyeing this expensive portable piece of equipment but the insurance industry, which has been walloped with an onslaught of claims related to fires and damage following a 400% increase in residential marijuana cultivation operations in Ontario during the past two years.
"From our perspective, there are upwards of 300 to 400 houses in some municipalities" that have been elaborately transformed into indoor marijuana farms, says Dan Little, president of the Ontario Chapter of the International Arson Investigators Association.Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=9CAA4DB4-14A5-489B-BE92-4A78D1B1023BSource: National Post (Canada)Author: Daryl-Lynn Carlson, National Post Published: June 21, 2002Copyright: 2002 Southam Inc.Contact: letters nationalpost.comWebsite: http://www.nationalpost.com/Related Articles:Appeals Court: Use of Thermal Scan Approvedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11618.shtmlPolice Limiting Use of Thermal Camera http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10984.shtmlControversial Infrared Camera is Praised by Policehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10961.shtml 
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Comment #6 posted by Lehder on June 21, 2002 at 14:57:48 PT
weapons hacks and drug warriors
And we still have all the infrastructure and bureaucracy and the economic runaway locomotive of the weapons industry now that the (contrived) cold war is all over. And look at its progeny: the war on terror for starters, the new resolve to use samll nukes in prophylactic strikes (speaking to the many dick heads in this industry), abandonment of the ABM Treaty, reignition of a phantasmagorical star wars....at staggering expense and great danger to all and it will go on and on until the economy collapses...in another day or two maybe. So it was too with the mafia ( God rest John Gotti's soul, he no longer has to lose a documented $50,000 per week on the sports book )that sucked from society for decades after repeal of the VOlstead Act, and so it will be with the far more fabulously wealthy and utterly ruthless dons, all the fittest of the drug war. The damage will go on for a century afterward. Thanks so much.We gotta put an end to this cycle and recognize it in form and at its inception and not only in its effect in maturity. The armed educators from DARE have not helped a bit.
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Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on June 21, 2002 at 13:21:47 PT
One person's waste is another's career
It's just like the cold war and the nuclear arms race. What a waste.
I know a weapon physicist who thinks it wasn't a waste. The arms race put his kids through college. In his limited range of caring about the world, that was not a waste.It's like that, all over again. We're not just facing an army of repressive moralists, we're threatening the economy of mutually assured destruction that they have spawned.
The people making a living from that economy are a big problem. But that was also a feature of the witch hunts. More than a few European families earned their trip to the middle class by forging instruments of torture for examining suspected witches.
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Comment #4 posted by Lehder on June 21, 2002 at 12:28:16 PT
Now It's Water That's The Problem in Canada
Growers will tap water lines ahead of that meter too, and steal water for use as a continuously flowing coolant that reduces the IR signature of electrical equipment. The water and absorbed heat will be dumped thru insulated plumbing and down the drains. If the cops want to catch these operators, they'll have to muck around in the sewers. But if a single child can be saved....Newer thermal imagers have a sensitivity on the order of 0.1 deg C, so a lot of water will have to be used, especially in the terawatt setups( that's one billion thousand-watt lamps, dddd) near the falls or when discharge pipes are enclosed in outer walls. Growers will rip thru walls to insulate and reroute plumbing with messy tangles of cheap hoses, circumstances that invite more damage. With the drains on hydro-electricity and the water itself, the Niagra will cease to produce enough flow to piss test the Falls.Moderately sized illegal smoked-medicine manufacturing operations can afford their own imaging equipment, and a cottage industry will spring up among growers who wish to evaluate their thermal camouflage. It's just like the cold war and the nuclear arms race. What a waste. 
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Comment #3 posted by qqqq on June 21, 2002 at 11:01:24 PT
,,down here in the AE,(american empire)...
....speakin' of insurance....yesterday,,,our wonderful represenative government got down and passed a bill concerning the terrorism insurance issue.....Oh boy!,,was I ever relieved to know that they passed legistlation on this terror insurance thing....Like most Americans,,I have been waiting,and wondering when the senate would rule on this,,,because just like everyone else,,I have been waiting to get a terror insurance policy...I'm certainly glad our rulers have their priorities in order.....My cousin got hit in the head with a wine bottle,,by an Al-Quieda biker gang member,,yet,he had no terror insurance......
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Comment #2 posted by Naaps on June 21, 2002 at 10:27:18 PT
Insurers honor claims? Not in BC.
I have a friend who trained to be a thermographer. He came to my house once with the thermal imaging equipment, and I had a chance to see exactly how sensitive the equipment was. A mere degree Fahrenheit difference can easily be detected. So, it is no wonder that these devices can spot the heat from high intensity lights inside homes.I’ve heard of criminal groups using the technology to find homes for targeting for ripping off. Of course, the police use this technology, and here in Canada there hasn’t been a ruling prohibiting them from using thermal imaging.One thing that surprised me is that the story says the insurance industry has been on the hook for claims made due to fires and damage arbitrated to cannabis production. Here is BC the police would tell you that the insurance company would not honor claims related to cannabis production. In fact, Joey Thompson wrote an article in the Province, on April 26th, decrying how a Chilliwack couple’s house had been damaged by an electrical bypass, and much interior renovation, none of which was covered by insurance. Interestingly, at the end of the article detailing the couple’s plight, and how the grower probably won’t be paying for the damage, Joey suggests the couple would have been better cutting a deal with the grower, rather than merely calling the cops.Cannabis should be grown outdoors, or in greenhouses, it is prohibition which forces people to grow inside.  
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Comment #1 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on June 21, 2002 at 07:32:04 PT
Consequences of Cannabis Prohibition
Plain and simple.End cannabis prohibiton, cut WAY down on fires like these.There will always be a few "Tim the Toolman Taylors" out there endangering us all, but they have nothing to do directly with prohibition-generated crimes and disasters.
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