The Cannabis By-Law and Health Canada licences and certificates to grow marijuana are causing some stumbling blocks for police as they try to root out illegal marijuana grow operations in Prince Edward County.
On Thursday, Committee of the Whole heard from Detective Sergeant Don MacAlister of Prince Edward County OPP who said police receive many complaints about grow ops but their hands are often tied as to what they can do.
MacAlister says police need a reason to believe a criminal act is underway to investigate.
“That’s something that we’ve struggled with in the past with investigating some of these grows in the fact that we can’t just basically profile on the fact that they exist and start looking into it without the viable criminal start.”
If they do receive a complaint, police first check to see if the address in question has a Health Canada licence.
“And we can look into who those people are. What we can’t do is automatically go onto the property to see whether or not they are complying with Health Canada regulations. We need some type of information source that’s gonna allow us to check that the activity at that location is illegal and it allows us to commence a criminal investigation.”
Police will give the complainant other options if they cannot immediately investigate.
“And if there’s nothing that we can do, we can speak back to the complainant and advise a course of action. Maybe they could reach out to let the municipality know with regards to their concerns and maybe there’s something that can be done on another avenue. Whether it be some type of by-law for odor or sound or whatever.”
In some other regions, MacAlister says police are using municipal employees like by-law enforcement officers and building inspectors who go into grow ops as part of their job to look for signs of illegal activity.
OPP believe there are currently 14 operations with Health Canada licences operating in the County.
