Halifax councillor urges action against medical pot houses

The eradication of homegrown medical marijuana can't come soon enough for one Halifax regional councillor.

Since 2001, Health Canada has permitted some people to grow small amounts of medicinal pot in their own homes.

But as of April 1, new federal legislation will make it illegal for anyone to grow the drug in their home.

As of that date, the only legal option will be to buy it from a federally-licensed producer.

Armdale-Peninsula West Coun. Linda Mosher hopes police get cracking on so-called pot houses without delay.

"So for example, there's a couple in my district and residents have had continued problems with them and there's fear in the community," she said.

Halifax police are aware of that, but say it won't change overnight.

"I know there are some people out there who want us to kick in every door and seize it and go from there," said Deputy Chief Bill Moore.

He said officers will begin with known grow-ops, but only those they suspect belong to traffickers.

"It won't be a light switch," he said. "This will be much more of a transition, focusing on... I'll call it the worst-case scenarios first, and then eventually getting down to the smaller individuals."

Under the new law, even medicinal users with small amounts of pre-April homegrown pot will be breaking the law.

But Moore said those users are far down the police priority list.