POT 'CONSULTANT' REPORTS PLANT THEFT

Someone Stole His Marijuana And He Wants Police To Get It Back.

So, an officer found himself in the unusual position yesterday of
taking a report for the stolen weed. Weed worth anywhere from $850 to
$17,000. Depending on who you ask.

Usually when someone's stash is ripped off, the last person they
think of calling is a cop. But Derek Pedro figures his legal property
was taken and he deserves the assistance of police, just like anybody else.

First, let's get a few things straight about Pedro.

He calls it his "medicine." Not his pot.

He refers to himself a "gardener." Not a cultivator.

He says he is a "consultant." Not a dealer.

And he doesn't have customers. They're his "patients."

Since 2003, Pedro, 37, has had a licence through Health Canada that
allows him to use and grow marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Since childhood, Pedro has been plagued by excruciating migraines, he
says. He also has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, an incurable problem with
his collagen production, which causes severe joint pain.

At 16, Pedro discovered smoking dope made him feel better.

These days, "I need to medicate at least once an hour," he says. He
does it with the government's blessing.

He also grows his own with the federal government's approval.

In the back yard of his east Mountain home, Pedro has a small
greenhouse. In there he grows his "mother plants," the cannabis
genetically designed to meet his specific medical needs. From those,
he takes cuttings to grow the crop that thrives in his basement.

Pedro is not just gardening for himself. It would be against the law
for Pedro to grow cannabis for someone else. Or sell to them. So he
doesn't do that.

What he does is rent space in his house for others to grow. He
charges them for hydro. And his consultation fee.

"I have a great following of people who need help," he says.

Pedro says he has eight patients, but hopes to expand to 80.

His fee and overhead works out to about $50 a plant, which he says is
the dollar value Health Canada sets for a pot plant.

Cops go by a different calculation. Street value for weed in Hamilton
is usually set at about $1,000 for a mature plant.

Early yesterday morning, someone cut the lock on Pedro's greenhouse
and stole 11 mother plants. Then they broke into a basement window
and stole seven more plants. They went up to the first floor and
stole a computer and a bag of marijuana.

All the while, Pedro was asleep on the second floor.

Health Canada says medicinal pot growers must have security. Pedro
has a security camera, but the images from the break-in are so grainy
they are useless. He says he has a security company, but the alarm
didn't go off and the company didn't respond. He has a guard dog.
Abby is a 13-year-old boxer who expects strangers to pet her.

This is the second time Pedro's marijuana has been stolen. Two years
ago he reported a break-in at his home and wound up being arrested
for running a grow-op. He spent two days in jail before the charges
were dropped. Now he has a $4.3-million lawsuit filed against
Hamilton police, claiming unlawful arrest and mental anguish.

His wife -- also a licensed medical marijuana user -- left him soon
after that. They share custody of their children, aged four and 13.

Lego blocks and toy dinosaurs are scattered between a few young pot
plants that remain in the back yard. The precious branch of a mother
plant floats in a child's wading pool, in the hopes of rehydrating it.

The children, says Pedro, "know it as my medicine."

Yesterday, it took much of the day for police to get to Pedro's
house. He says it's because of the lawsuit and the pot. Police say
Pedro's break-in was just one in a long list after a busy weekend.

Pedro says he will use every bit of marijuana he has left to ensure
his patients are taken care of. That will mean his own doses will be
jeopardized.

Unless, of course, police are able to recover his stolen pot and hand it back.