A medicinal marijuana grower-user says he'll uproot his 29 plants by midnight Wednesday, as ordered by police after neighbours complained about the smell.

Dave Williams, 57, suffers from early-onset arthritis and degenerating discs in his back. For this, he is licenced to consume marijuana and is allowed to have 59 plants -- but the particulars of his agreement with Health Canada stipulates he must grow them indoors only.

Williams says he had little choice but to move them outdoors this spring after his landlady decided to have a gas line and furnace installed in his west-end home.

The area of the basement where he grew his plants was becoming a worksite, so he moved all the plants outside.

"I thought it would only be for a week or so," he says. "They originally thought it was only going to take a day to do the work."

It didn't, and is in fact ongoing.

After two or three weeks, Williams contacted Health Canada, seeking permission to put the plants in the ground and continue to grow them outdoors for the remainder of the season. he spoke to someone, but says he never got a reply. He decided to go ahead and plant them after first doing some research to determine how many he could keep outside. That number, he determined, was 29 and he claimed he destroyed many of his plants in order to be in compliance.

His neighbours, Joan (last name not given) and Ken Steele -- whom he was previously on good terms with -- strongly oppose the plants because of the smell.

"I'm very resentful," Joan says. "We want a charge laid. He's ruined our summer."

Williams said he put up a large blue tarp to cut down the odour, but the neighbours complained to bylaw about the sight of it. It has since been taken down.

He figures the plants will be mature and ready for harvest in less than a month, but has agreed to comply with police who have ordered him to remove them before Thursday morning -- based on the fact that his licence doesn't permit them outdoors.

Joan and Ken aren't satisfied, they still want Williams charged.

Police say no charges will be laid based on the smell alone.

Williams is worried about how he will remove or destroy all the plants himself, as he is physically limited due to his chronic pain.

"I'm going to have a little party until 11 p.m., and then we'll cut them all down," he said.

Twitter: @DougHempstead