COPS FUME OVER POT LICENCE SECRECY

Health Canada Won't Tell RCMP Who's Legal

OTTAWA -- Health Canada is putting people at risk by refusing to give
police a list of the 413 people the government has authorized to grow pot,
according to the head of the RCMP's marijuana grow operations enforcement unit.

Staff Sgt. Marc Pinault says police have failed in their attempts to
convince the federal government that providing the names and addresses of
the people to whom it has issued pot-growing licences could prevent
injuries during dangerous drug raids.

"(Health Canada's) legal advice is the privacy doesn't allow them to do
it," Pinault said, adding he's spoken directly to Health Minister Anne
McLellan about the issue.

"I asked Health Canada ... who is going to take responsibility on the next
case where an officer kicks in a door, and we shoot somebody or an officer
breaks his leg going up the stairs - who is going to take responsibility?"
Pinault said.

Health Canada has set up a toll-free number police officers can call during
business hours to get the information.

But Pinault dismissed the line as "inadequate," adding that it doesn't help
officers who are getting tips in the middle of the night.

Health Canada's Cindy Cripps-Prawak admitted the hours of operation of the
line are a problem.

"We are exploring with the RCMP how we can make it ... a 24-7 access," she
said.

"We can make the information available to them on an on-call basis but
we're not prepared to give them the full list without having at least had
discussions about how that information will be used, how it will be purged."

However, 70% of the 413 licensed pot growers have voluntarily said their
names and addresses could be made public, and Cripps-Prawak said there have
been discussions with the RCMP about the feasibility of putting such
information on the national police data-base, CPIC, with restrictions.

Toronto-area Liberal MP Dan McTeague argued the police should be given all
the tools needed to do drug investigations.

"It is a recipe for disaster," McTeague said yesterday. "You're putting
enforcement in a far more difficult position rather than dealing with
strict problems of enforcement ... It's a cock-up from the beginning and no
one has thought this out."