Pubdate: Wed, 20 Oct 2004 Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB) Copyright: 2004 Winnipeg Free Press Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502 Author: Cassandra Szklarski, Canadian Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada) ONT. ADDS WEAPONS IN POT-GROW BATTLE Distributors Can Cut Power to Suspected Homes TORONTO -- The Ontario government opened another front in its war on marijuana grow houses yesterday with new legislation designed to allow electricity distributors to cut power to homes they suspect are growing pot. If passed, the legislation introduced by Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter would allow distributors to cut power with a court order, or without one if they have "reasonable cause" to suspect a threat to public safety or system reliability. "The energy distributor will make all of those determinations," said Kwinter, adding that the companies "have the obligation and the responsibility" to make that call. "If they have reasonable cause, they can cut off that electricity without notice." Kwinter, who called grow houses "a blight on our neighbourhoods," said the bill would also double the maximum fines under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act for tampering with electrical wiring, a common grow-op tactic designed to disguise the telltale consumption of large quantities of power. 'Important step' Addressing the Ontario Provincial Police Association's annual meeting, Premier Dalton McGuinty said the legislation is "an important step" in its fight to crack down on residential marijuana grow operations. While the media played up the news earlier this year of the discovery of a marijuana grow operation in an old brewery outside Barrie, McGuinty said most grow operations are in neighbourhood homes rather than in factories. This is a "billion-dollar-a-year business, one that funds the trafficking of guns and hard drugs while threatening the health and safety of our communities," he said. "They are a serious issue." Earlier yesterday, Kwinter visited a Toronto fire academy, where he outlined a litany of hazards posed by grow ops. Firefighters demonstrated the dangers posed when hydro meters are bypassed to steal electricity. Fires are 40 times more likely in a grow op than a regular home, and they're often infested with mould, structurally unsafe and dangerous due to electrical rewiring and overloading, Kwinter said. Inspected Under the new law, any home that's been used to grow marijuana would have to be inspected before it could be used again as a dwelling. The owner would have to pay for any repairs required to fix damage caused by criminal activity. The legislation would also protect homebuyers from unwittingly taking over a former grow-op house that has been structurally damaged. Kwinter said electricity distributors already have the right to cut power under the Ontario Energy Board Systems Code, but the bill would entrench that right in legislation. Conservative critic Garfield Dunlop complained that the legislation fails to seek tougher sentencing laws under the Criminal Code. "If the government is really serious about the issue, they should be targeting the drug criminals with tougher sentencing, not the threat of someone pulling off the hydro switch," Dunlop said in the legislature. "What about penalties under the Criminal Code?" - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake