LAW WOULD CUT GROW-OP POWER

Local utilities will have the power to shut off the electricity to
homes suspected of growing marijuana under a proposed new law,
Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter said yesterday.

"They will have the ability to cut off the power without notice ...
they cannot do that now," Kwinter told reporters.

The tough new measure will be included in legislation this fall aimed
at ridding Ontario of the marijuana growing operations.

Kwinter backed away from earlier comments that the proposed law would
give hydro, building and other inspectors special powers to enter a
home they suspected was being used to grow marijuana.

"But somebody will be able to cut off your power without notice
because we think you are doing something illegal," he said. "They will
be able to determine that there is an excessive amount of power going
into that house."

It is estimated that grow-ops steal some $80 million a year in
electricity, besides posing a serious fire hazard.

However, critics say that cutting off someone's power could have
disastrous effects.

"What if you make a mistake and somebody is living in that house and
they have a piece of equipment that they need to live (such as a
respirator)," Conservative MPP Garfield Dunlop (Simcoe North) said.

New Democrat MPP Michael Prue (Beaches-East York) said: "This seems
hugely Draconian."

Kwinter said a local utility will have to do "due diligence and they
have got to be able to justify why they have done it." He said because
these marijuana operations use large amounts of electricity to keep
the lights going 24 hours a day, they often bypass the meter and tie
in directly to the main power source.

"Because of the bypassing of the meter, it is a public safety issue,
because the power being used there is being used in very, very high
(intensity) lamps ... and there is risk of fires," Kwinter said.

Toronto police say that in the past three years the number of grow
houses shut down jumped by more than 400 per cent, from 33 in 2001 to
168 in the first six months of this years.

"Grow operations generate vast profits for organized crime," Staff
Inspector Dan Hayes said last month.