GROWING INDOORS IS EASY, INEXPENSIVE

Authorities Not Tipped Off If Hydro Bills Are Paid

Marijuana-growers use copious quantities of electricity to grow
clandestine plants under high-intensity lights, but they need not
worry about scrutiny from their power utility, provided they pay their
bills. Several hydro suppliers said yesterday they would not report to
police a spike in electricity use from any particular address.

"If they're paying their bills, it's not a hydro theft issue," said Al
Manchee, spokesman for Hydro One, Ontario's largest electricity
supplier with 1.2 million customers across the province. "We don't get
involved in legal issues. We're not a police force."

Toronto Hydro, which supplies power to the City of Toronto, said a
drop in electricity usage would lead to suspicions that someone had
tampered with the meter. But a big increase in electricity consumption
"wouldn't raise the same kinds of flags," said Blair Peberdy, a spokesman.

"If it's going through the meter, there is less likelihood that we
would notify police," Mr. Peberdy said. "There is a tremendous amount
of renovation going on. People add jacuzzis, a new furnace, or air
conditioning."

But if a meter reader notices tampering to steal power, the utility
will notify police, he said. He estimates Toronto Hydro lost
$2-million to electricity theft last year, much of it linked to those
growing pot.

The group busted for growing marijuana at a former Molson brewery in
Barrie, Ont., a year ago had been buying electricity perfectly legally
from Barrie Hydro for months before the police raid.

"They were taking electricity and it was flowing through the meter and
they were paying their bills," said George Todd, president of Barrie
Hydro, which counts 63,000 customers.

"The amount of power being used was obviously less than when Molson
had it. There were several businesses in the facility. We didn't have
any suspicion what they were doing with the electricity."

Growing marijuana indoors is easy and inexpensive, said Mark Stupak,
owner of Happy Girl Hydroponics, a store in Toronto's Kensington
Market that supplies equipment to people who grow pot. He sells a kit
for $350 that includes a high-intensity discharge light, such as those
that brighten the highways, a transformer, which allows you to plug it
in, and a fan.

"Every house has a stove," Mr. Stupak said. "A stove can give you
8,000 watts of electricity. So you can put eight of those units in two
rooms, and produce eight pounds of pot in two months selling for
$2,000 a pound."

Mr. Stupak said the death of four police officers in Alberta should
not be an excuse to vilify those who grow marijuana.

"The guy was crazy," he said. "It doesn't matter what he was doing
with pot."

Inspector Bill Ellison of the Toronto Police drug squad said his
officers decided not to comment on any aspect of grow operations until
next week, out of respect for the families of the slain police.

"Being the drug squad, it kind of like hits home even harder," he
said.