There are illegal marijuana grow-ops, but what happens when it’s legal cultivation?

The Federal government had plans to scrap its current system (or non-system, depending on who you ask) of allowing medical marijuana users to grow their own supply and replace it with a government-run system of approved growers and quality controlled product. A Vancouver judge threw that into doubt however by issuing an injunction on March 21 that delays the legislation that would have been implemented as of April 1.

There are currently 30,000 legal licences for homegrown pot – that’s a lot of people growing pot where they live, be it in a backyard or a container on the balcony.

What does it mean for homeowners – and potential home buyers?

Illegal marijuana grow-ops are one side of the story. We know they can mean a lot of trouble. Oftentimes, an entire house is used to grow marijuana, with growing lights and humidity maintained at levels that make it a haven for mold growth along with a host of other problems.

What happens if it’s a legal situation?

The Solution..?
It’s clear the legal aspects of marijuana cultivation (and if it’s legal in some states down south, will we be far behind?) still need work at the government level. There has to be a better solution than allowing for potential damage to property with no controls in place to minimize that aspect.

What you can do – knowledge is power
You may be able to find out if a home has been used as an illegal grow-op but there’s really no way of finding out about legal, licensed homegrown marijuana cultivation. Mold is perhaps only the start of a long list of problems that includes contamination by toxic chemicals and many other issues that affect indoor air quality and the structure of the house itself.

If you’re looking to buy a property and suspect that it may have been used as a marijuana grow-op, the experienced technicians at Mold Inspections can do indoor environmental assessments and testing for tell-tale signs like mold, yeast, bacteria and other toxic substances.

Know what you are getting into. For Grow-Op & Drug House Testing Services in Toronto, Contact Moldinspections.ca for a hassle-free quote today.

MoldInspections.ca is the trusted leader for mold-free homes and breathable indoor air spaces in Toronto, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and beyond. Providing certified mold inspection, detection and testing since 2005, we service home owners, real-estate agents, landlords, property managers, insurance companies and businesses. Featured on CTV and Global news, official supplier to HGTV’s Income Properties with Scott McGillivray and Leave It To Bryan and recommended by local contractors, we regularly serve as expert witnesses in court proceeding relating to Mold and Indoor Air Quality issues. Do you have mold? Call us today for a free quote at (416) 575-6111(416) 575-6111.

Don Schultz, the founder of Greenline Academy, offered a course on how to grow marijuana legally at a University of Toronto campus recently. The course was offered to teach people how to become legal growers of medicinal marijuana by getting a license from the federal government and growing it in a small operation.

While the course does offer tips on both the legal and agricultural aspects of growing pot, including a warning about proper ventilation to avoid mold growth, our own experience as a company alone should point to the necessity for a cautious approach to this issue.

Like any party who has witnessed – or in our case, had to clean up after – the damage caused to a dwelling by a marijuana grow op, we’d think very carefully about licensing growing numbers of people to grow pot at home without first ensuring they have the proper facilities to do so.

Grow Op Damage
The police know that for every marijuana grow op house they find, a few more remain off their radar. It’s something you need to be cautious of when buying a resale home. Marijuana grow ops can be found in upscale neighbourhoods as well as more modest locales and can cause significant damage within months.

Growing marijuana requires warm, humid conditions that are also ideal for mold growth, and it’s extremely common for former grow op houses to be mold infested, among other things.

Some of the more common health risks include:

You Can’t Always Tell
A visual inspection alone won’t tell you about mold that’s hiding inside the walls or floors. The only way you’ll know for sure is with indoor environmental assessments and testing.

Indoor Environmental Assessments & Testing
Indoor environmental assessments and testing helps detect former Grow Ops.

Before buying your home or if you suspect it has been used as a ‘drug house’, consider hiring a professional indoor environmental assessment & testing company to do a mold, yeast, bacteria – and other toxic substances – inspection. These contaminates are often associated with grow ops and meth labs and are health risks.

As Indoor Environmental Assessment & Testing Specialists, you should know that it is ‘home buyer beware’, and that testing for former Marijuana Grow-Op activity has never been more important.

Know what you are getting into. For Grow-Op & Drug House Testing Services in Toronto, Contact Moldinspections.ca

Please call us for a hassle-free quote today.

MoldInspections.ca is the trusted leader for mold-free homes and breathable indoor air spaces in Toronto, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and beyond. Providing certified mold inspection, detection and testing since 2005, we service home owners, real-estate agents, landlords, property managers, insurance companies and businesses. Featured on CTV and recommended by contractors, we regularly serve as expert witnesses in court proceeding relating to Mold and Indoor Air Quality issues. Do you have mold? Call us today for a free quote at (416) 575-6111.

Police are looking for a Scarborough couple after a raid netted a cache of nearly 2,000 marijuana plants in a grow operation earlier this month. The townhouse, part of a complex in Scarborough near Midland and Ellesmere Avenues, featured a modified electrical system the authorities are calling a serious fire hazard. The value of the marijuana grow operation is estimated at nearly $1.9 million. The two suspects are being sought on criminal charges.

More than the Utilities
As in this case, the emphasis is often put on things like electrical systems modifications, because of inherent danger and also the diversion of the utility as a criminal act. However, mold is often a lingering and persistent problem in former grow houses long after the utility issues have been sorted out – including toxic black mold infestation.

A “Grow Op” for Mold
Marijuana cultivation requires both heat and humidity, creating tropical conditions indoors and the problems associated with them, including rampant mold growth. Mold can grow anywhere there is moisture, but it particularly loves heat and humidity.

Other health risks include:

Grow ops are often found in upscale communities simply because of the set up: larger properties spaced farther apart. Neighbours may not see each other very often even under normal circumstances and preserving a quiet exterior is considered desirable. It allows a grow op to hide in plain sight.

How Can You Know?
If your home – or prospective home – was used as a grow op and was discovered by police, there will be a public record of it. However, even police know that for every one they catch, many more go undiscovered.It won’t be something that’s immediately apparent to the naked eye.

Indoor environmental assessments and testing helps detect former Grow Ops.

Before buying your home, or if you suspect it has been used as a ‘drug house’, consider hiring a professional indoor environmental assessment & testing company to do a mold, yeast, bacteria – and other toxic substances – inspection. These contaminates are often associated with grow ops and meth labs and are health risks.

As Indoor Environmental Assessment & Testing Specialists, you should know that it is ‘home buyer beware’, and that testing for former Marijuana Grow-Op activity has never been more important.

Know what you are getting into. For Grow-Op & Drug House Testing Services in Toronto, Contact Moldinspections.ca

Please call us for a hassle-free quote today.

MoldInspections.ca is the trusted leader for mold-free homes and breathable indoor air spaces in Toronto, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and beyond. Providing certified mold inspection, detection and testing since 2005, we service home owners, real-estate agents, landlords, property managers, insurance companies and businesses. Featured on CTV and recommended by contractors, we regularly serve as expert witnesses in court proceeding relating to Mold and Indoor Air Quality issues. Do you have mold? Call us today for a free quote at (416) 575-6111.

Despite tougher enforcement and legislative tools like increased sentences for Hydro theft, marijuana grow-ops continue to be a concern in the GTA.

When fire crews responded to a house fire on the evening of November 7 in Brampton, they found an apparent grow-op. Firefighters reported seeing marijuana plants on all floors of the building as they battled the blaze and police are investigating the alleged operation.

Typical to many illegal grow-ops, the home was vacant and it was neighbours who contacted the fire department after seeing smoke. The house had actually been uninhabited for years and the kids in the neighbourhood reportedly called it a “haunted house”.

It may not be home to ghosts and otherworldly spirits, but it’s almost certainly home to mold along with its illegal vegetation. Indoor marijuana cultivation requires levels of heat and humidity that produce condensation and make mold growth a near certainty.

Residents of the Brampton street are said to be taken completely by surprise by the presence of the alleged grow-op in their midst, but that’s often the point. In contrast to what many think of as back alley and slum condition illegal drug operations, traffickers often find upper middle class neighbourhoods like the Brampton area ideal. The houses and lots tend to be larger, meaning neighbours have less direct contact and there are fewer opportunities for passersby to see inside a building. The economic downturn of recent years means that vacant homes in those types of neighbourhoods aren’t uncommon and often attract little attention.

If you’re planning on purchasing a home, the realtor is obligated to let you know if it was used as a marijuana grow-op, however that fact may have gone unnoticed. While some, like the Brampton home, involve vacant homes where the entire building is used and it’s eventually uncovered, many other, smaller operations can exist in sections of an inhabited home – operations that are never discovered and brought to light, with the inherent problems, including mold and poor air quality issues, simply passed on to the next, unsuspecting buyer.

The only way to ensure peace of mind is to order grow-op testing from the experts at MoldInspections.ca. If you have any suspicions that a prospective or current property has been used as a grow-op, please call us for a quote today.

MoldInspections.ca is the trusted leader for mold-free homes and breathable indoor air spaces in Toronto, the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), and beyond. Providing certified mold inspection, detection and testing since 2005, we service home owners, real-estate agents, landlords, property managers, insurance companies and businesses. Featured on CTV and recommended by contractors, we regularly serve as expert witnesses in court proceeding relating to Mold and Indoor Air Quality issues. Do you have mold? Call us today for a free quote at (416) 575-6111.

Doctor Ray Copes, Director of Environmental and Occupational Health for the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, recently gave a seminar detailing the dangers associated with Grow-Ops and, more specifically, remediated Grow-Op homes, or former Grow-Op homes that have been seized and repurposed.

It’s fairly simple for us to understand the immediate problems an illegal drug growth operation poses. In British Columbia alone, the number rose from 1,251 in 1997 to 2,802 in 2000. The Grow-Ops accounted for roughly $100 million in electricity theft in B.C. Grow Ops are associated with countless building violations and unsafe electrical setups. They also negatively impact communities because of the violence associated with them, whether it’s through rival dealers trying to steal the stash in “grow rips” or the booby traps often lining the houses.

However, as any mold inspector will tell you, the damage former Grow-Ops leave behind can be just as harmful. Once they’re seized, the federal crown assumes control of Grow-Op properties. But does the government do a good enough job of preparing those buildings for healthy living and keeping residents informed about the properties’ past?

Grow-Ops that housed drugs like marijuana often have poor breathing environments as a result of rampant mold and the use of tobacco and the harmful chemicals associated with it. Not surprisingly, former methamphetamine labs are particularly dangerous. Meth labs often have hydrochloride and ammonia residue among many other harmful agents. There were 29 meth labs seized in Canada as recently as 2005.

Should Grow-Ops be condemned entirely because of their poor conditions, be they chemical residue, water damage, mold and so on? Not necessarily. But the government needs to do a more thorough job with its mold detection, mold removal and general approach to cleaning these former Grow-Op buildings.

The process that went into creating the drugs once found in these buildings may have been complex – rocket science, even – but cleaning them isn’t. If the government showed a better commitment to remediating the buildings and did a better job informing new residents about the buildings’ past, it would go a long way toward ensuring that Grow-Ops’ days of harming their communities are over.