THE POT-HYDRO HASSLE

In response to the Aug. 24 article entitled Hydro Thefts Add to Your Bill,
I feel that saying Ontarians pay an average of $6 more on their monthly
electricity bills is an irresponsible claim to make.

In my opinion, Ontarians should be more steamed, not that pot grow-ops are
sucking up electricity, but that all this energy is being wasted due to our
ridiculous and arbitrary government policies.

Rather than throwing more money away trying to stop the unstoppable, it
would be a much wiser decision, I feel, to simply legalize marijuana. This
way, anyone who wants to can grow their own pot in their backyard, using
the most renewable energy resource available -- the sun. The environment
will be helped by lowering our power consumption; a huge cash crop will be
instantly taken from various organized crime elements; and all of the money
now spent, and proposed to be spent, on finding "grow houses" can be put
back into meaningful programs like health care, education or maintaining
the integrity of our drinking water.

This is a no-lose situation for the people of this province, except, of
course, when the current administration continues to try and enforce its
sad excuse for "laws" which are the fundamental cause of this huge drain on
our hydro supplies.

It is far beyond time for people to wake up and stop blindly following the
government's red herring and realize that it is the government itself that
is directly responsible for this situation.

Benjamin James Toronto