Pubdate: Wed, 15 Jan 2014
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Section: Front Page
Copyright: 2014 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Elizabeth Payne

THE GROW-OP NEXT DOOR COULD BE LEGAL

Neighbours, Municipalities Frustrated, But Laws Changing
Soon

The elderly neighbour's children suspected something was up when
workers began showing up at the quiet house in Ottawa's west end to do
electrical upgrades and install what looked like a series of
industrial-sized vents, among other things.

No one seemed to live in the bungalow on the leafy street and the
blinds were always drawn, although trucks pulled up frequently during
the day.

Peter Marshall, whose 87-year-old mother-in-law lives next door,
called Ottawa police to report the family's fears that the house was
being used as a grow-op, something police confirmed this week when
they were called there to investigate a break-and-enter and found
numerous plants and growing paraphernalia inside.

What police told the family next surprised them.

The grow-op next door was, in fact, legal, one of likely thousands
across Canada in which marijuana is being grown with the permission of
Health Canada, often by a designated person who can grow for as many
as four users of medical marijuana.

The operations, which can look very much like the illegal grow-ops
that dot most Canadian cities, have left neighbours and municipal
officials throwing up their hands in frustration.

Marshall's mother-in-law fears the grow-op next door - even though it
is legal - is a magnet for crime and break-ins as well as a high risk
for fire because of the large amount of electricity being used to grow
the plants. This week's break-in, which is still being investigated by
police, has only heightened those fears. And her family is frustrated
that neighbours were given no notice about what was going on in the
house next door.

If a homeowner wants to change the setback of his house he has to go
through a whole committee and send out notices to neighbours, Marshall
noted, "but for this, there seems to be no information."

Bay Ward Coun. Mark Taylor said he sympathizes with the concerns. "I
completely understand where they are coming from. I wouldn't be happy,
either, if I was living with this."

Taylor said the federal government's medical marijuana licensing
system contains a loophole that allows such operations to exist in
residential areas with no oversight from municipalities or fire
departments and no notification to neighbours.

The good news for concerned neighbours is that the new law will make
such operations illegal as of the end of March, when the regime for
producing medical marijuana is changed. Until then, there is little
the city or police can do.

"Whether legal or illegal, they pose all kinds of problems and
hazards," said Taylor. "This is exactly why municipalities, including
Ottawa, raised our concerns (about the medical marijuana approval
system) and why the new rules that take effect in March will forbid
this kind of operation in a residential neighbourhood."

The home is a symbol of what was wrong with the old medical marijuana
regulatory system, he said.

Ottawa is currently drafting regulations that would strictly dictate
where the new medical marijuana facilities can operate in the city.
"They won't be allowed in residential areas. They will have to be in
some kind of commercial-industrial district."

As of the end of March, users of medical marijuana will be prohibited
from growing their own pot - or from delegating someone to do it for
them as is now the case.

As of September, Health Canada had issued more than 25,000 "personal
use production" licences, allowing medical marijuana users to grow
their own pot. It had also issued more than 4,200 "designated person
production" licences - which allow medical marijuana users to
designate another person to grow pot for them.

In the past decade, the program grew from fewer than 500 individuals
with permits to use medical marijuana to more than 36,000.

When the program changes at the end of March, users of pot for medical
reasons will be banned from producing their own. Health Canada
recommended this week that users who are currently growing their own
mix leftover marijuana with cat litter to mask the smell and put it in
their household trash to dispose of it.

"Health Canada will provide guidance to all current program
participants so they are aware of their responsibilities with regards
to disposing of their dried marijuana and plants," said a spokesman
for Health Canada.

Under the new system, Health Canada said, local governments, police
and fire will all receive notice before a medical marijuana facility
can set up in a community.

Meanwhile, the family of the elderly woman who lives next door to the
legal grow-op said they will continue to pursue complaints about the
operation. Her son-in-law, Marshall, said he has filed a complaint
against the home's owner for violation of property standards.

The owner of the home could not be reached for comment. A
representative of the local community association, who lives across
the street from the house, refused to comment.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D