Pubdate: Wed, 09 Aug 2006
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2006 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n1019/a02.html
Author: Russell Barth
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

NEW GROW-OP LAW WILL VIOLATE RIGHTS

Re: Clampdown ahead for area grow-ops, Aug. 4.

The medical marijuana licence regulations from Health Canada state 
that medical marijuana growers should not let their growing sites be 
known to other people. This is common sense. But due to the new 
Ontario grow-op legislation, many people across the province will be 
phoning their hydro suppliers to ensure that their power is not 
suddenly turned off. People on ventilators or who own a lot of 
computers may also be "suspected" of growing. Freezers full of food 
may spoil and people may actually die because of a wrongly identified 
"grow-op."

If a medical marijuana licence holder tells the hydro supplier, "Hey, 
I know I use a lot of power, but I have a licence from Health Canada 
to grow pot," then he or she violates the licence's conditions.

Equally troubling, by telling a hydro worker on the phone that you 
are growing marijuana, a grower exposes himself or herself to home 
invasion. Why? Because hydro workers are not required, as police are, 
to keep their mouths shut about where medical grow-ops are located 
and how big they are. Talk around the bar or water cooler gets loose, 
and information like that spreads fast. By telling one hydro worker 
on the phone, a grower might effectively be telling the whole world 
about his or her business.

This violates medical marijuana users' right to privacy, beyond the 
issue of public safety, and puts growers in a legal 
rock-and-hard-place scenario, forced to choose between the law and 
health. Surely that could be a violation of the Charter of Rights. I 
doubt that this legislation will hold up in court, but everyone will 
have to wait until something terrible happens before we find out.

Russell Barth,

Ottawa,

federal medical marijuana licence holder
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman