ONTARIO TO PULL PLUG ON HOMES SUSPECTED OF HOUSING GROW-OPS

TORONTO -- Ontario will give hydro companies the right to cut power to
homes they suspect are being used to grow marijuana, the province's
solicitor general says.

The move is part of comprehensive legislation, slated for introduction this
fall, that will give police additional tools to combat marijuana grow-ops,
said Monte Kwinter.

"A lot of these buildings have got an incredible number of children living
in them and they're being put at risk because of the chemicals, because of
the electricity, because of the booby traps that are in there rigged up,"
he said.

"This is an attempt to give the various sectors that are impacted by it the
authority to deal with it."

Electricity distributors can often detect homes that have illegally tapped
into power lines. The new legislation will allow those companies to cut
homes suspected of stealing power without obtaining police approval to do so.

"They have to do their due diligence," Kwinter added.

Officials estimate the cost of electricity theft by illegal indoor
marijuana operations at close to $80 million.

"We have every responsibility to put those grow-ops out of business,"
Kwinter said. "You have to understand that virtually all of these grow-ops
are owned by absentee owners. They have people in there that are just there
to tend the plants and their home isn't their castle, their home is a grow-op."

Earlier this year, officials from the banking, electricity, insurance and
real estate industries met with law enforcement to discuss collaborative
approaches to eradicate the billion-dollar pot grow-op industry.

"We're simply looking for the whole community to be involved," said Paul
Hamelin, president of the Ontario Associations of Chiefs of Police.