Jessica Wilson
Ottawa meth labs are killing resale values
Crystal meth. Ice. Crank. Amp. Speed. As police and drug support groups have fought to bring the growing epidemic to light, no doubt you’ve been inundated with sobering facts and disturbing images of the realities of meth use. But while the demonizing effects of the drug undoubtedly victimize the meth addicts and their families, the damage it wreaks during manufacturing, before it even hits the streets, can be just as severe.
It can ruin your home, cost you upwards of $100,000, make you sick and, in extreme cases, turn your lungs to gel.
Because of the chemicals used to make it, a building that is used even once as a methamphetamine lab is reduced to “toxic waste,” said Paul Wilson (no relation), a registered home inspector in the area who has seen the problem growing in Ottawa.
“Generally meth labs only operate from six to 18 months at a time, and in this time it goes from a reasonably restorable procedure to the complete gutting of the house,” he said. “You then have to remove all the duct work, the furnace, refrigerator, appliances, all the furniture, carpeting, underpadding, sometimes plumbing. It’s all a toxic waste. Basically it deteriorates the house and it’s the smell, the odours that go right through.
“Most houses I’ve been in, I tell them they have to gut it right through to the interior wall.”
Wilson remembers one client in particular who bought a home for his young family without having it inspected. Shortly after they moved in, he, his wife and their two children started feeling
ill; light dizzy spells turned to nausea, and nausea to vomiting. They left the house, called Wilson in and he confirmed it: their house, a former clandestine lab, was making them sick. Wilson said it was good they left when they did because prolonged exposure to anhydrous ammonia will essentially turn your lungs into gel, “and basically you expel your lungs over a period of time.”
They got out before that happened, but now the young man (who declined an interview so as to not muddy an already contentious legal battle) has had to work 10- to 12-hour days, six days a week since July to try and restore the house so they can move back in.
He just didn’t know.
The RCMP have released several statements about the dangers of untrained chemists manufacturing “bathtub” drugs at home, but mostly those statements have focused on immediate dangers, such as explosions or chemical fires.
What has been shown to be a bigger concern now are the long-lasting effects of playing with chemicals, like inevitable but extreme environmental pollution.
But there are other dangers too. On the occasions when Wilson suspects he’s about to walk into a lab he always wears protective gear, and even still, he’s in and out of the house in minutes. Sometimes the labs are left booby-trapped with electrical wiring secured to doorknobs to shock anyone who touches them. Other times the chemicals are just laying there, out in the open.
What is possibly most troubling, said Wilson, is that it’s clear the problem is growing, and the RCMP are also seeing a scary trend. They said that last year meth labs accounted for about 60 per cent of all clandestine drug labs seized in Canada, with Ontario being second only to B.C. In the past, of the 400 or 500 homes Wilson would inspect in a year, about 15 to 20 of those would be marijuana grow ops and maybe two or three would be meth labs.
But this past year the number more than doubled. While this still may not seem like many, what Wilson said is worrisome is that there is a notable increase, and not just in typically shady areas of town. They are in Kanata. Orl?ans. Centretown. Ottawa South. They are in urban areas, suburban areas, high-rise buildings and low-rent homes.
“They’re in any kind of area,” he said. “It just kills the resale value.”