Sherri Zick­e­foose and Kathryn Young, Cal­gary Her­ald and Can­West News Service

Cal­gary home­buy­ers hunt­ing for reduced prices on remod­elled for­mer marijuana-growing oper­a­tions may be get­ting more trou­ble than they bar­gained for.

Homes ren­o­vated to clean up mould and indoor air prob­lems caused by defunct grow ops may still be unfit to live in, says a fed­eral researcher who will study the prob­lem this fall.

Fungi­cides, insec­ti­cides, sol­vents and other chem­i­cals used in drug-making oper­a­tions are absorbed by dry­wall, car­pet­ing, wood, sub­floors and con­crete base­ment floors, says Vir­ginia Salares, a senior researcher with Canada Mort­gage and Hous­ing Corp.

The chem­i­cals may also be found in back­yards, where they are fre­quently dumped.

“Peo­ple can­not take for granted it’s safe,” says Salares. Vapours from chem­i­cals can per­me­ate the entire house, not just the rooms where the plants were grown.

The health risks vary, depend­ing on the con­cen­tra­tions of chem­i­cals used, how long the grow op was in oper­a­tion, and the age, immune sys­tems and health con­di­tions of the peo­ple who move in.

“You wouldn’t want to put an infant or a child under those con­di­tions, being exposed to gases,” Salares said.

Cal­gary police say they raid 120 to 140 res­i­den­tial grow ops each year. A typ­i­cal bust seizes 50,000 pot plants worth upwards of $60 mil­lion annually.

The homes, which are pre­dom­i­nately located in the city’s sub­urbs, are usu­ally unoc­cu­pied, accord­ing to Staff Sgt. Monty Sparrow.

“It’s pretty steady. We’ve gone from mom-and-pop oper­a­tions to an orga­nized crime sit­u­a­tion,” said Sparrow.

The Cal­gary Health Region posts homes con­demned as grow ops on its website.

For­mer city grow ops are iden­ti­fied on Inter­net real estate list­ings dis­clos­ing the toxic past.

One home in Har­vest Hills has a reduced price reflect­ing its drug-house history.

Police esti­mate there are about 50,000 grow ops in Canada, although the exact num­ber varies.

Grow op homes typ­i­cally sell for 25 to 30% off mar­ket value. Despite the risks, lower prices attract buy­ers, says Ottawa real estate agent Richard Rutkowski, who recently rep­re­sented the seller and buyer of a for­mer grow op that had been on the mar­ket for two years.

“There’s a buyer for every­thing,” he says. “Iron­i­cally, the (nearby) hydro lines posed more of a deter­rent than the actual grow house.”

Real estate agents have to ensure every­one involved in a sale is fully aware of the home’s state, says Rutkowski. He esti­mates that for every 10 peo­ple inter­ested in a prop­erty, eight will back out when they learn it’s a for­mer grow op.

Other agents refuse to list grow ops, and coun­sel their clients to avoid them.

“There are too many unknowns, espe­cially with the chem­i­cals,” says Win­nipeg real­tor Cindi French. “I per­son­ally would never con­sider them a good deal at any price.”

Salares com­pleted a study this year into mould and indoor air qual­ity in reha­bil­i­tated grow ops. It noted that while police suc­ceed in iden­ti­fy­ing and seiz­ing many grow ops, mar­i­juana grow­ers often avoid detec­tion by buy­ing and sell­ing houses quickly.

“The homes are super­fi­cially repaired and sold to unsus­pect­ing buy­ers, who may be unable to locate the pre­vi­ous own­ers,” the report states.

Grow­ers typ­i­cally pack hun­dreds of plants into small spaces with high mois­ture and no nat­ural light or air cir­cu­la­tion. As a result, the plants get fun­gal dis­eases and insect infes­ta­tions that are treated with high doses of chem­i­cal pes­ti­cides. Grow­ers are unlikely to use organic solu­tions or dis­pose of chem­i­cals in an approved fash­ion, Salares says.

“High pro­duc­tiv­ity is their goal: the most plants in the short­est time possible.”

Salares is now study­ing which chem­i­cals are being used in grow ops, how they’re stored, how var­i­ous sur­faces absorb and give off toxic vapours, and how a house can be rehabilitated.

Bob Lin­ney, com­mu­ni­ca­tions direc­tor for the Cana­dian Real Estate Asso­ci­a­tion, says guide­lines for reha­bil­i­tat­ing a for­mer grow op and stan­dards for air qual­ity will be invalu­able to real estate agents.

Reha­bil­i­tat­ing a for­mer grow op can cost any­where from $3,000 to more than $100,000, depend­ing on how long it was used, how long it stood empty and what changes the mar­i­juana grow­ers made, says Marie Dyck, who worked with Salares on the first study.

Peo­ple who know­ingly buy for­mer grow ops because they’re good deals should think twice, adds Salares.

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