Lancaster police warn of unlicensed care homes, large-scale grow houses and illicit smoke-shop sales

Mike Katz, a special investigator with the Lancaster Police Department, told the Lancaster Criminal Justice Commission that the department has opened roughly 50 remediation cases involving large-scale illegal cannabis grow operations and is seeing a separate wave of unlicensed care homes and smoke shops that sell unregulated cannabis products.

Katz said the unlicensed care homes are a growing public-safety concern because they generate heavy calls for fire and medical services and, in some cases, involve varying degrees of neglect and questionable prescribing and enrollment in benefit programs. "They're using the fire department as their primary health care provider," Katz said.

The presentation focused mainly on grow houses, which Katz described as industrial operations that convert single-family homes into production facilities of “600 to 1,200 plants per house.” He said those locations create persistent mold and pesticide contamination, electrical hazards and theft of utility service. "A grow house is 24 times more likely to catch fire than a non grow house," Katz said. He added that operators sometimes use banned pesticides, including substances he…