Markham residents complain about stench from legal marijuana grow op

Parents, students and area residents gathered at a public town hall meeting in Markham to discuss a legal marijuana grow up just down the street from a public school.

Parents of students at Sam Chapman Public School say the pungent smell of marijuana from the home is enveloping their kids’ schoolyard, but there’s nothing police can do about it.

That’s because the marijuana is being legally grown under Canada’s medical marijuana program.

“I don’t want my kids having to smell that smell in the air,” said mom, Melanie Johnston.

“It would be nice if they could move it somewhere that is an industrial place,” another added.

The home’s owner has a licence to legally grow 146 plants for personal use. CityNews knocked on the door Wednesday, but no one answered.

The home is equipped with numerous security cameras and several vents that continually pump out the fumes that have raised the ire of the local Conservative MP.

“If you go to the next door neighbour’s a few doors down even, you have a coffee at their house in the middle of the afternoon, the stench is overwhelming,” said Oak Ridges-Markham MP, Paul Calandra.

“It’s completely unfair. It’s silly. It’s stupid. And it needs to be closed down and all the places like this need to be closed down.”

Calandra said the government would have shut down all residential grow ops by March 2014, but the courts ruled in the favour of growers, saying they should be allowed to grow for medicinal use.

The Ministry of Health said it can’t close it down, but if it was to move, the owner would need a new licence, which the Ministry said they are no longer handing out.

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