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