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Grow-ops moving to apartments
Toronto police say that because that city’s vacancy rate is near an all-time high, apartment buildings have become a preferred location for marijuana growers. On November 24th, police raided one 13 storey apartment building at 2600 Jane Street that had 22 units on nine floors filled with marijuana and the equipment used to grow it. On the same day they raided a second apartment block around the corner and seized marijuana in another unit.
"The trend we are seeing is they are using apartment buildings because of the extremely high vacancy rate — and availability," says Det. Sgt. Dave Malcolm of the Toronto Police Service drug squad. The average vacancy rate in 2005 was 3.7 per cent in Toronto, according to CMHC.
Police said the superintendent of the Jane St. building was one of three people arrested so far, though officers continue to probe how such a complex drug enterprise could exist under the noses of 700 residents.
Toronto police also released a video showing the lengths the producers went to in hiding the grow ops. One advantage for growers is that many apartment buildings have a single hydro meter for the entire building, enabling extraordinary electricity use without ready detection. After a grow-operation is discovered in an apartment, Toronto Public Health must inspect it and give the okay before it can be rented again.
In 2005, Toronto police busted 250 grow-ops and are on track to do the same this year. Grow-ops have also been discovered in private condominiums in Toronto.
November 28, 2006 in Legal Considerations | Permalink
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Comments
Vacancy rates are so high because rents rose so much under the Tenant Protection Act that about the only people who can afford to rent are drug dealers!
Posted by: tenants | Dec 11, 2006 12:35:33 PM
There is lots of information here for tenants about Toronto apartment marijuana grow-ops http://ca.geocities.com/wltenants
Posted by: toronto apartments | Dec 11, 2006 12:34:04 PM
Why are vacancy rates so high in the GTA?
Posted by: Snap Up Real Estate | Nov 29, 2006 8:17:42 PM
