June 15, 2009

Surrey has seen a 80.9% decrease in residential grow-ops between 2004 and 2008 as a result of the success of the City’s innovative electrical fire safety program The results are in a new academic study by the University of the Fraser Valley’s Dr. Darryl Plecas, Dr. Irwin Cohen and Tara Haarhoff; and Amanda McCormick - Research Coordinator with the BC Centre for Social Responsibility.

“This research supports the work that we’ve been doing and confirms that we can succeed in deterring the grow-op industry from establishing itself in our cities,” said Mayor Dianne Watts. “This gives us increased confidence that we can make our streets safer and improve the lives of our residents through innovative measures that address crime through collaborative efforts.”

The results of the report being presented this evening at the regular meeting of Council reflect the objectives laid out in the City of Surrey's Crime Reduction Strategy, a problem solving approach that deals with the root causes of crime.

According to the research, the 80% decrease resulted from the following steps:

·         March 2005: Surrey and Abbotsford pilot B.C.’s first public safety inspection programs.

·         April 2006: Provincial legislation (Bill 25) is passed, providing cities with direct access to hydro consumption data.

·         October 2006: The first hydro data starts arriving in Surrey; with about 1,000 addresses meeting the high-consumption criteria for suspected marijuana grow operations.

·         Early 2007: Surrey doubles the size of the EFSI team

·         December 2008: The number of high-consumption hydro files diminishes significantly.

“The City of Surrey has been the leader in developing and implementing alternative solutions to address public safety risks associated with marijuana grow operations,” said Dr. Plecas. “The data provides a great example of how police and communities can deal with crime problems in a very significant way.”

The City’s Electrical and Fire Safety Inspection (EFSI) initiative, which began in 2005, was one of British Columbia’s earliest examples of applying an administrative solution to a problem that had previously been addressed only through the criminal justice system. Since the introduction of the EFSI public safety inspections, communities across the province have adopted similar programs.

“It’s exciting to see that the actual statistical results for Surrey prove what we’ve been observing at the street-level for quite some time now”, said Chief Len Garis of the Surrey Fire Services. “There’s been a noticeable decline in grow-op activity and much of it can be attributed to the work of the EFSI team members who have proactively addressed these issues through the lens of public safety.”

The report Police Statistics on Marijuana Drug Files in Surrey, the Lower Mainland, and the rest of British Columbia 2004-2008: A Comparative Analysis was based on an analysis of:

·         all marijuana drug cases coming to the attention of all law enforcement authorities in B.C. between 2004 and 2008, and

·         all marijuana grow operations attended to by fire departments in the Lower Mainland – including seven that had EFSI teams in place during the study period (Surrey, Coquitlam/Port Coquitlam, Pitt Meadows, Langley, Mission, Richmond and Abbotsford).

The City of Surrey continues to press other levels of government to target marijuana production including four new strategies aimed at further disrupting the illegal marijuana grow industry:

1. Increased tax audits of illegal drug production income through the sharing of information between local and federal authorities.
2. Regulated access to the sophisticated high-wattage hydroponics equipment used in most grow-operations.
3. Allowing for local monitoring of licensed medical marijuana grow operations, which share the same public safety risks as illegal grow operations, and
4. Supporting research that is intended to eliminate illegal narcotics production, including the development of new detection technology, the assessment of regional programs and baseline studies of Canada’s marijuana trade.

-30-

For more information, please contact: