by John Barbisan, President
Today I am excited to tell you about a new initiative that we are launching at the Board – Safe Grow Homes – a new campaign and resource aimed at helping the public, our clients, and elected officials understand the impact of growing cannabis at home.
When cannabis is legalized later this year, people will be allowed to grow up to four cannabis plants in their home. The provincial government says it will support this federal policy but not allow people to grow cannabis in areas visible to the public such as outdoors or in areas used by members of the public such as daycares.
We believe there needs to be more clarity and information surrounding legal growth in homes, given our past experiences as REALTORS® with illegal grow homes. Governments need to provide guidelines, restrictions and proper processes so our clients can make smart decisions about their largest investment.
To help establish a framework where homeowners and those looking to purchase a home would have their investment protected, we are outlining three recommendations for government:
- Further define the requirements for growing cannabis safely in homes
- Create a province-wide system for maintaining and accessing information on the status of illegal grow homes
- Outline a process whereby unsafe grow homes can be restored to healthy homes
SafeGrowHomes.ca is officially launching on Thursday, May 17, and we encourage you to check it out and share it with your clients. You can also visit our Facebook and Twitter pages to follow the campaign through the next few months, where we’ll be sharing further information, tips, and other helpful resources.
The next step in our campaign is to engage our Government Relations committee. Volunteers serving on this Board committee will meet with elected officials to share information about how growing cannabis in homes can create risks for homeowners and buyers and urge elected officials to take action to protect our clients.
In the coming weeks and months, you will also see articles in NewsReal and new pages on REALTOR Link® with information that will help you better understand cannabis and drug operations.
As you may know, our Board’s Government Relations committee has been asking governments to introduce a standardized process for reporting and remediating drug operations since 2006. In launching the Safe Grow Homes campaign, we are taking a bold new step on addressing this issue head on as cannabis and cannabis growing in homes becomes legalized in Canada.
I hope you will support us.