REIN IN MEDICINAL GROW-OPS

If Canada's medicinal marijuana carried a warning of side effects, it
might read something like this: Warning: may cause home invasions.
Can lead to newspaper headlines. Unintended consequences may develop.

The mayors of several neighbouring communities in the Lower Mainland
and the RCMP have called for an end to licensed home-based pot growing
operations, complaining the growth in medicinal marijuana growing
permits is out of control. This comes in the wake of reports about
three robberies of legal licenced growing operations in Langley over
the last six months.

Police say they don't know where the legal grow-ops are until someone
robs them.

It's probably safe to say this wasn't what the federal government had
in mind when it agreed to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Pot has, for instance, been shown to help cancer patients control the
nausea induced by chemotherapy, reduce internal pressure in glaucoma
cases and stimulate appetite in patients with AIDS.

Allowing its limited use in such cases under a doctor's supervision
seemed to make sense. But in one year, the number of growing permits
in B.C. alone has more than doubled.

During the same period, the number of legal users has grown even more,
with more than 13 times as many people.

If the use of private legal marijuana grow-ops is going to continue,
it is going to have to be better regulated.

Letting police and local authorities know where they are located would
be a good start. Limiting their numbers would be another.

There are now nearly as many people permitted to grow marijuana for
their own use or for others (2,585) as there are licenced users in
B.C. (2,995).