Pubdate: Mon, 7 Oct 2002
Source: Canadian Press (Canada Wire)
Copyright: 2002 The Canadian Press (CP)
Author: Camille Bains

B.C. MARIJUANA FACTORY TO SUE NEWSPAPER FOR PUBLISHING GROW-OP STREET NAME

VANCOUVER (CP) - A group of people licensed by Health Canada to grow
marijuana for medicinal purposes plans to sue a newspaper for publishing the
street name of the home where the pot is being cultivated.

Such information in the New Westminster NewsLeader creates a privacy and
security risk for residents, said Michael Maniotis, director of the Merlin
Project, which has organized five such marijuana factories in British
Columbia. "It's going to cost the NewsLeader $1 million in court or $100,000
out of court to settle with us," Maniotis said.

"To put myself, my wife (and) the licensees at risk here, plus their
medicine, is completely unacceptable as far as we're concerned," said
Maniotis, who rents the home and sublets it to three people licensed to grow
marijuana for medicinal purposes.

NewsLeader reporter Wanda Chow said the newspaper was never asked not to
publish the street name, although Maniotis said she didn't interview him or
any of the licensees.

Maniotis, who smokes pot to relieve arthritis pain and stress, invited
several media outlets to tour the home Sept. 30 and asked reporters not to
reveal the location of the marijuana factory.

"We were never invited to any media conference and sworn to any
confidentiality," Chow said.

Maniotis said he has e-mailed NewsLeader editor Greg Knill about his
concerns and has also left a detailed phone message but hasn't heard back.

"We warned them not to publish anything about the Merlin Project or the
marijuana factory again," he said. "Otherwise, they'd be putting themselves
in a worse position than they already are right now."

Knill did not wish to comment and said he would return a call from The
Canadian Press but did not.

"The whole issue behind the privacy of the licensee is to protect their
medical privacy, for one, and then also protect their physical integrity so
people don't know where they're growing and they don't come to rob and hurt
them in the process of stealing their cannabis," Maniotis said.

"What happens to locations in Vancouver that are known to be cultivating
cannabis, legal or otherwise? The doors get kicked down, people come inside,
there's home invasions, people sometimes get killed."

The home in New Westminster is located on a street that is only 200 metres
long and it wouldn't be difficult for anyone to identify the premises as a
grow-op, Maniotis said.

When told by a Canadian Press reporter that a radio station had also
identified the street name after the media tour, Maniotis said he would
include it in a lawsuit.

"Anybody who's transgressed our privacy rights will be subject to a
lawsuit."

Maniotis said he and the three licensees will also sue the New Westminster
police department for harassment because officers have made repeated phone
calls to the landlord and have visited the home several times.

"They've been calling since (last) Monday, to our landlord, sometimes up to
three times a day on his cell phone, asking to lodge some kind of complaint"
against his tenants, he said.

"We threatened the police department . . . with a lawsuit if they continued
that sort of harassment."

Maniotis said he invited police to tour the home with the media. Officers
weren't interested but later came by uninvited, he said.

"The police are going to be investigated by our attorney," he said. "The
landlord has decided to participate in the case against the authorities but
we're going to choose the time and place to do that."

Det. Sgt. Ivan Chu of the New Westminster police department said none of the
licences lists the location as a place where marijuana can be grown for
medicinal purposes.

"They tell us that a change of address is in the works," Chu said.

He said police don't know if marijuana is being grown there because they
don't have grounds for a search warrant.

Maniotis said he has some seedlings and "about 20 plants" growing at the
premises.

He refused to say whether he has obtained a license to grow pot at the
premises.

Maniotis has been charged with trafficking in marijuana at the Merlin
Project's Marijuana Tea House, which was shut down by police in January
after only a few weeks in operation.

Police said people without Health Canada licenses were smoking pot and that
equipment was being set up to grow plants.

The federal government amended drug laws last summer. A limited number of
patients can obtain a special exemption allowing them to possess marijuana
for their personal use or for the purposes of growing the weed for someone
else's medicinal needs.
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