cannabisnews.com: Ontario Marijuana Growhouses Gobbling $500 Million Ontario Marijuana Growhouses Gobbling $500 Million Posted by CN Staff on July 05, 2002 at 15:05:49 PT By The Canadian Press Source: Canadian Press A growing plague of electricity-gobbling illegal marijuana growhouses is costing Ontario's hydro utilities upwards of $500 million a year, an amount ultimately paid by all energy consumers, power distributors say. Fuelled by massive marijuana-generated profits, the operations, which have sprouted by the thousands in the past few years, also carry a huge social cost, they say. "The days where a grove of marijuana would be masked up north in a field are over," said Andrew Evangelista, a lawyer who represents electricity distributors. "There has been a proliferation of residential houses hidden in residential neighbourhoods all across Ontario being used to grow marijuana." Worth as much as $4 billion a year, marijuana is among the most valuable cash crops in the province. Police say Ontario is fast catching up with British Columbia as Canada's pot-growing capital with that province's $6-billion-a-year market. It's a powerful lure for organized criminals, they say. Police estimate a single hydroponic growhouse can churn out plants worth a street value of more than $1 million a year and much of it ends up in the United States. Growing marijuana indoors requires powerful lights and ventilation, consuming about $2,000 in electricity a month, but hydro thieves simply bypass the meters to avoid the overhead and make tracing the operations harder. "The demands on the system are enormous," Evangelista said. York Region Det.-Sgt. Gary Miner said authorities in Markham, just north of Toronto, have been shutting down up to 10 such operations a week. "It's out of control, it's an epidemic, it's a virus," he said. "This year we've done a 107 warrants and the more we do, the more we find." In a recent one-day national crackdown, police scooped up $47 million worth of pot plants 136 suspects, and found 28 children in the houses, some booby-trapped to discourage intrusion. Ontario Liberal member Michael Bryant said the illegal operations hurt everyone. "While they're being asked to conserve electricity, some pot-growing energy thief next door is toking up all the electricity, causing brownouts and blackouts, driving up electricity prices, and sending the neighbourhood up in smoke," said Bryant. The costs go well beyond the estimated $5 a month extra consumers pay on their hydro bills. The illegal hydro hookups and lights pose a major fire hazard, and the houses, many rented from unsuspecting landlords, often get badly damaged. The costs are shouldered by police, fire and hydro services, banks, insurance companies and the health system, all of which are ultimately passed onto consumers and taxpayers. Miner said police need "an eradication tool" that allows them to enter a growhouse, remove and destroy the plants without a warrant. Bryant said the province can help by giving hydro utilities the power to slap liens on properties involved in the theft to help recoup their losses. But ultimately, police say, a coherent national drug strategy is needed. Complete Title: Ontario Marijuana Growhouses Gobbling $500 Million in Power, Distributors SaySource: Canadian PressPublished: Friday, July 05, 2002 Copyright 2002 The Canadian Press Related Articles & Web Site:Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmExperts Don't Agree on Grow Op Problemhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13228.shtmlLivin' in Grass Houseshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13168.shtmlPot Farms Conceal Deadly Risks http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13136.shtmlMarijuana Grow-Ops in B.C. Jump 222 Percent http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13118.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #12 posted by john wayne on July 06, 2002 at 11:49:48 PT as the economy worsens This is gonna look more attactive:> - Tenants pay only cash or offer to pay more than agreed rent. (from FoM's post.) [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by R-Earing on July 06, 2002 at 09:46:00 PT: What really costs Estimated cost of prohibition=10 billion/year(includes doughnuts,moustache wax,extra-large size waist bands,big ugly cop shoes,health plan Viagra and alcohol rehab diversion programs) [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by CongressmanSuet on July 05, 2002 at 23:51:22 PT Mayan, Thank you for the links... I Know its Cannabis News, and no offense to pd4me, but you are doing an important service. Please, dont stop. Your stuff is great, and I dont see alot of it at Truthout OR Indymedia, at least like it should.... [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by Lehder on July 05, 2002 at 20:12:32 PT suing for peace Miner said police need "an eradication tool" that allows them to enter a growhouse, remove and destroy the plants without a warrant. The tool you're coveting, Sgt. Miner, is an American styled SWAT team. The result that you'll obtain is a country more like the US with streets too filthy to walk on and too dangerous to drive through, storefronts boarded up, communities bankrupt, libraries closed more than open and with little to read and very few in them reading, schools worthless and dangerous, citizens ignorant and violent, a country that acts as a magnet for the toughest and most ruthless criminals on the planet, a corrupt RCMP and judiciary, a government of yes-men, crooked elections and a country run by US corporations.So if the electric bill is a little too steep for you, you might reflect on the fact that the war on drugs is your war and only you can end it. Now take a second look at you own Canadian people's conditions for peace: 1. The immediate legalization of cannabis, and then as quickly as possible to all other herbs and entheogens. 2. That there be no legal or regulatory controls on who may cultivate and use cannabis. We will accept regulation and taxation only in regards to the commercial sale of cannabis products. 3. That any person imprisoned for any cannabis-related offense is to receive an immediate and unconditional pardon. All records of convictions for any cannabis-related offences are to be expunged and destroyed. 4. That restitution be paid to all victims of cannabis persecution. Compensation for property seized and a per-diem rate for time in jail should be paid out of tax revenue from the sale of cannabis products. 5. An official apology from the UN and world governments, that they acknowledge the war on cannabis and cannabis consumers was a vicious, murderous bigotry with no legitimate social or health concerns whatsoever. http://www.cannabisculture.com/cgi/article.cgi?num=1568 [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on July 05, 2002 at 20:00:49 PT Recurring blind spot I love the "pillory the evil growers" type propaganda. These growers are taking over Ottawa! Booby trapped homes! Ruining the electrical grid! Children (28) in danger! It's everywhere! Of course, the real reason for everything mentioned in the article is that CANADIANS SMOKE A LOT OF POT! That's right, hardworking, tax-paying Canadians are driving the enormous cannabis industry with a voracious appetite for cannabis. And you know that if it was impossible to steal the electricity, the power companies would be working just as hard to cover up the massive industry. Let's hope that we're not the only ones seeing the obvious solution here. Industry kingpins in food, agriculture, alcohol and tobacco have GOT to start crunching some numbers sooner or later - the opportunity cost, or profit, depending on how you look at it, is staggering.And don't think the law enforcement leadership wants a total crackdown. I talked a couple of young guys in Northern VT once who were basically small time dealers; they said that it's all an inside job. Huge 18 wheelers of weed come down through customs all the time. None of the higher-ups in Canada or the US want to see it stop anytime soon. No weed coming over the border, no vast network of small-time dealers to provide endless arrests and bodies to stock the prisons. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by The GCW on July 05, 2002 at 19:53:55 PT Not just legalize RE-LEGALIZE. Problem solved. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by mayan on July 05, 2002 at 18:33:05 PT Grow Canada! You have the opportunity to change the world Canada!unrelated - UnansweredQuestions.org, the citizens' group behind June 10th 9/11 Conference at the National Press Club, launches Citizens' Investigative Commission on 9/11 and Activism Plan: http://unansweredquestions.org/press_three.htmlSept.11 Hearings Likely Delayed(imagine that!): http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&ncid=703&e=8&u=/ap/20020702/ap_on_go_co/homeland_security_2 [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by p4me on July 05, 2002 at 17:45:03 PT it won't happen here We are in an age where the object is to get one electron to say yes or no in a computer and the measuring of electricity is very easy. You do not have to find connections. All the energy companies have to do is detect a loss along the transmission lines. You can rob energy from electrical lines by just running wires parallel to the transmission lines. The reason you do not hear about people doing it is the stiff penalties and the ease at which these things can be detected.Just look at the effort that Time Warner had on catching people of robbing a signal from cable television. Not only can they detect the loss when they look for it, they used to brag about having a 100% conviction rate.As far as naaps calculations, I would respect his assessement and knowledge although I did not check his math. The largest paper in Canada, The Toronto Star, had a June 27th article titled "Four men in $1M grow-house case get house arrest" in which they valued 1380 plants at over a million dollars- I guess that is Canadian: http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1025215372040&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News1,2 [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by MikeEEEEE on July 05, 2002 at 17:24:29 PT Very simple solution Legalize, then the energy companies will get their monitary share of the cash crop, and safety regulations could be put in place. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Naaps on July 05, 2002 at 16:26:29 PT Let’s play with the numbers. The electricity consumed is supposedly $2000 per month. Ontario Hydro charges residential rates of approximately $0.07 per kilowatt-hour. Based on 720 hours in a month, the average hourly consumption is $2.78. Now the typical grower has some young plants under 24 hours light, but the flowering plants only take 12 hours. Usually, for every 1000-watt light on the younger plants, there is probably 4 lights on the flowering plants, because plants in vegetative state don’t need quite the same intensity and are smaller. The typical growing method using sea of green has plants based on one square foot, and a minimum lighting intensity is 50 watts per square foot. Lights don’t consume all the power, there is ventilation fans, maybe pumps, agitators, computers, etc. Crunching the numbers, I’d estimate that to have the electrical consumption that they suggest, the grower has approximately 30 lights running.If 24 of the lights are on flowering plants, and a typical yield is 1 1/2 pounds per light, then every 8 weeks, the harvest is 36 pounds, or approximately, 216 pounds per year. Note, it probably won’t be that much because in the summer it is difficult to keep the garden temperature below 30 degrees Celsius. Above 30 degrees the plant’s growth slows, actually 24 degrees Celsius is considered optimum. Now if the price of a pound is $2500, then this garden is producing $540000 per year. Approximately, half of what the prohibitionist propaganda suggests.But alas, so many things can go wrong. Growers take time to perfect their skills, so the first few harvests are invariably compromised. So one learns to control the pests, learns to monitor the hydroponic solution, learns to control the temperature, humidity, and pH. Then there is other possible problems, electrical shorts or equipment breakdown, thieves armed with thermal imaging equipment, citizens patrols all primed up on what to watch for, loose tongues, and other unpredictables, such as an errant vehicle crashing into the home. Reaching the vaulted $1 Million a year garden is damn tough.I don’t respect thieves. The people stealing the power are criminal, but many growers pay for their electricity, especially if the consumption is only based on a handful of lights. This article seeks to give the uninitiated the idea that all cannabis growers are stealing power, damaging homes, endangering the environment and community. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by freedom fighter on July 05, 2002 at 16:23:57 PT Simple?? Legalize Legalise!!!!!!How hard can that be?? Even a first grader can understand that!ff [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on July 05, 2002 at 15:37:11 PT More Information From The Brockville Recorder http://www.recorder.ca/cp/national/020705/n070561A.html Electrical utilities in Ontario say illegal pot growhouses are stealing $500 million in power a year and causing a huge safety hazard. Some facts by the numbers: Estimated power theft in Ontario: $500 million a year. Estimated number of growhouses in Toronto area: 10,000 Average power cost per growhouse: $2,000 per month. Estimated value of Ontario pot crop: $4 billion. Estimated value of B.C. pot crop: $6 billion. Signs a home is being used for pot growing - No one ever appears to be home. - House only appears occupied for a few hours at a time but no one lives there. - Cannabis or masking odour. - Windows boarded or covered. - Tenants pay only cash or offer to pay more than agreed rent. - Tenants discourage landlord visits. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment