IN THE WAR ON MARIJUANA, INDIVIDUALS STILL HAVE RIGHTS

You can understand firefighters' concerns about marijuana grow-ops.
Almost 10 per cent of building fires in Surrey last year were in
grow-ops, says Chief Len Garis, and many were particularly dangerous to fight.

In a normal house fire breakers trip and kill the power supply.

But in some grow-ops, jerry-rigged electrical systems mean
firefighters encounter live wires as they fumble blindly through
smoke-filled rooms and tangles of equipment.

That's why Garis and other fire chiefs lobbied for the new law that
will force B.C. Hydro and other utilities to hand over information on
customers and their electricity use. Grow-ops, with their
high-powered lights and other equipment, are big electricity users.

But the law raises serious privacy issues. The legislation -- still
to be passed -- would let municipalities require B.C. Hydro or other
utilities to provide two years' worth of power bills for every
resident. (Regulations will limit the act's application, government
officials say. Hydro will screen the reports and just pass on ones
that show people who use a lot of power.)

The town will look at the files, and then be able to come to your
house and post a notice giving you 48 hours to prepare for an inspection.

The idea is that if you have a grow-op, either you'll dismantle it or
the inspectors will. The plan worked in a Surrey pilot project. More
than 90 per cent of the flagged properties had grow-ops; 119
marijuana operations were shut down.

Or were they?

More likely they moved down the road, or into a neighbouring community.

There is much money to be made at a risk level that many people find
acceptable. And the tactic likely worked in part because the
operators weren't aware that their power-use information was being
shared with the municipality. Once they are aware, they will adapt.

The dangers might actually be increased if growers decide to try
improvised wiring to bypass the power meter, or switch to propane or
gas-powered generators. A move to more smuggling, or large outdoor
grow-ops, would bring different problems.

The firefighters' frustration is understandable. A University of the
Fraser Valley study on grow-ops found that in 1997 police across B.C.
investigated more than 90 per cent of grow-op reports within one
month. By 2003, that had fallen to barely 50 per cent. That means
grow-ops operate longer, and the risks for firefighters increase.

But the new law isn't likely to make people stop growing marijuana,
or make firefighters safer.

It will expand the state's reach into the lives of its citizens.
Authorities can get your electricity records now. They just have to
demonstrate a reasonable suspicion that you might be running a
grow-op. But B.C. Hydro has refused to hand over their customers'
information on a random basis, citing privacy laws.

It's an important principle. The state doesn't get access to
information about you unless it can show a good reason.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association opposes the new law. B.C.
privacy commissioner David Loukidelis questioned the need for it, and
says this kind of government surveillance -- without any grounds for
suspicion -- is increasing, and a cause for concern.

It's not an easy public-policy question, and it's made more difficult
by our fumbling approach to marijuana use generally.

The Harper government has announced it won't go ahead with
decriminalization. But practically, marijuana use is legal since the
laws are not enforced.

Even grow-ops have -- as the study showed -- become a low police
priority. StatsCan found almost 600,000 British Columbians 'fessed up
to using marijuana in the last year. That's an attractive market.

It is hard to imagine what sort of enforcement would actually cut off
the supply of a product that many people want.

That's the challenge. Maintain some enforcement, especially aimed at
organized gangs and keeping residential neighbourhoods safe, without
sacrificing police resources needed elsewhere.

It's a tough balancing act. But it should not mean the careless loss
of individual rights.

Footnote: If the main marijuana public-policy issues are the risks of
grow-ops in neighbourhoods and the role of criminal gangs in
profiting from the industry, a different response should be considered.

Allowing people to grow a handful of plants without penalty would
reduce the threat to neighbourhoods and the available profits for gangs.