Pot growers' names will be supplied

By: Maria McClintock, - Ottawa Bureau, The Ottawa Sun, 07/11/03

Solicitor General Wayne Easter vowed yesterday to ensure police officers get the names of Canadians authorized to grow pot so they're not targeted in drug raids.

Easter, who has witnessed firsthand drug raids at marijuana grow operations, told the Sun he was unaware police were not being provided that information, but insisted he will be "talking to his counterparts" about it.

Currently there are 582 Canadians authorized to have pot for medicinal purposes, 413 of them licensed to grow the weed.

"It's obviously something that we have to find a way to address ... it's an issue that is absolutely going to be addressed one way or another. We've got to respect privacy but ... we don't want the overburden on privacy to put at risk someone's life," Easter said. "I've seen how some of these marijuana grow operations are taken down and if an individual is provoked and somebody went in guns blazing ... then we'd have great difficulties."

RCMP Staff Sgt. Marc Pinault, the national co-ordinator of the marijuana grow operation squad, is pleased Easter will take action.

Pinault said efforts over many months to convince Health Canada to hand over a list of names have gone nowhere.

In at least four cases over the last several months, police have raided operations run by government-licensed growers.