POT CALLED 'SERIOUS ISSUE'

The Premier Says Illegal Marijuana Operations Are No Laughing Matter

ANTONELLA ARTUSO, Free Press Queen's Park Bureau Chief

TORONTO -- There's nothing funny about the province going to pot, Premier
Dalton McGuinty says. Unlike regular citizens who are allegedly provoked to
giggles by the massive marijuana bust at a Barrie beer plant, McGuinty said
the proliferation of illegal grow operations is no laughing matter.

"I think it's a very serious issue,' McGuinty said yesterday. "It's
becoming a too commonplace practice in Ontario. It has all kinds of
problems connected with it."

Randall Barrs, the lawyer for six of the men charged in the pot bust, has
said that the public is "amused" by the police discovery.

Community Safety Minister Monte Kwinter said numerous health and safety
problems are associated with the illegal grow houses.

"There's lots of very, very adverse repercussions from the growing of pot,"
Kwinter said. "This particular facility in Barrie is the mother of all pot
installations; it's very serious."

Kwinter said grow houses steal an estimated $80 million a year in
electricity and pose a fire risk to neighbours.

Police officers often find children living in these homes in a toxic mix of
mould and pesticides.

"Plus, of course, this whole thing is being really funded by organized
crime," Kwinter said.

McGuinty supports the decriminalization of simple possession charges but he
also favours tougher penalties for grow house offences.

Kwinter said decriminalizing simple pot possession doesn't imply support
for drug use, especially the potent weed grown in hothouse conditions.

"I don't think anybody's suggesting that pot is great and everybody should
be doing it," Kwinter said.