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HYDROPONIC MERCHANTS BLAST ‘STUPID’ BYLAW
By Hempology | February 6, 2006
The BC Hydroponic Merchants Association will go to court if necessary to stop a proposed Chilliwack bylaw that aims to regulate the sale of hydroponic equipment and drug paraphernalia, says legal counsel for the association.
“Our instructions are to fight this bylaw right to the Supreme Court of Canada, if necessary,” lawyer Jonathan Baker said yesterday.
He said the association has put Chilliwack city officials on notice that it will defend legitimate hydroponic merchants at a public hearing Monday night when the proposed bylaw is expected to return for council approval.
Baker said the bylaw, which would require buyers to provide picture ID before sales of hydroponic equipment or drug paraphernalia is “modelled after the Stalinist approach to legislation, totally out of place in a democratic society.”
“It’s incompetently put together and conceptually stupid,” he said.
But City Councillor Sharon Gaetz, who chairs the public safety advisory committee, said the purpose of the public hearing is to hear opposing views, and that changes could be made to the proposed bylaw to further protect legitimate hydroponic merchants.
She said similar fears were raised, but did not materialize, when council approved bylaws to stem the growth of marijuana grow-ops here and the selling of stolen goods at pawnbrokers’ shops.
“It’s no one’s intention at City Hall … to make life difficult for honest people,” she said.
The bylaw would require businesses selling hydroponic equipment and drug paraphernalia to obtain a $1,000 licence fee and require buyers to provide picture ID and proof of residence for a registry available to police authorities.
Baker said that requirement is a “parody of the Stalinist approach to legislation” and, if a hydroponic store is in fact run by organized crime or frequented by the criminal element, “how intelligent is it to ( require ) information that is
vulnerable to ID theft.”
He also said the bylaw is “defamatory” toward legitimate hydroponic merchants by suggesting their business may be linked to an illegal activity rather than supplying the legitimate greenhouse industry or home gardeners growing tomatoes.
He said under the bylaw a person buying a fan to grow tomatoes “is going to be subject to an inspection because they may have a ( marijuana ) grow-op in the house.”
Police officers should “kick in doors” of illegal grow-ops, he said, but “to have the police apparently involved in the drafting of
legislation is not always a good idea – and this ( bylaw ) is a good example.”
“It does not deal with the problem they seek to deal with,” he added, “and will not have the slightest impact on the problem of grow-ops.”
Baker said if the bylaw is approved in its current form, the association will take the city to court seeking damages for any business lost as a result.
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