Pubdate: Wed, 24 Apr 2013
Source: Kamloops Daily News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Kamloops Daily News
Contact:  http://www.kamloopsnews.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/679
Author: Sylvie Paillard
Page: 9

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Academy Helps Potential Growers Navigate Process

Protesters called out a familiar refrain from a blue haze at 
Riverside Park last weekend, but never before have the words 
"legalize pot" been taken so seriously.

About 100 marijuana advocates gathered for the annual 4:20 Freedom 
Fest on Sunday to demand the right to use weed recreationally.

The possibility of legalization feels closer than ever in Canada 
after six states south of the border declared pot decriminalized last year.

And an Angus Reid poll of 799 British Columbians last October showed 
75 per cent felt it should be taxed and regulated rather than prohibited.

The notion that B.C.'s billion-dollar industry could become 
legitimate has many dreaming of becoming ganjapreneurs.

Some predict big things despite the medical marijuana industry's 
ongoing stigma, law enforcement pressures and criminal opportunism 15 
years after becoming legal.

"It's unfathomable the revenue it would generate," said Carl 
Anderson, a Kamloops marijuana advocate, "not just for the government 
but for the producers, the retailers, everyone across the board.

"It's an excellent business opportunity. What I foresee is like the 
cigar industry where you have all different qualities. And I could 
see British Columbia being the equivalent of Cuba in the marijuana 
industry where you have the $1 cigar, the $100 cigar and everything 
in between."

(Anderson is currently mounting a constitutional challenge to charges 
of possession of marijuana for purpose of trafficking after being 
arrested while working for the Kamloops compassion club during a RCMP 
raid in November 2011.)

While plenty of locals want to see pot decriminalized, there's heavy 
debate over business models.

As new federal legislation will soon prohibit home grown medical 
crops, some fear the involvement of large corporations.

"Unscrupulous tobacco companies... keep you hooked on the brands - we 
fear this happening with our cannabis," said Al Bettz, 4:20 Freedom 
Fest organizer. "We also don't want the livelihoods of so many people 
in the business to go to those large corporations."

Bettz said his vision of decriminalization looks the same as it is 
today, only with government involvement when it comes to taxation and 
quality control.

"The current way it is usually done is simple enough - the grower 
sells it to a middleman and he sells it to the dealer," said Bettz. 
"We propose the government becomes the middleman."

However it's never quite that simple, even for freedom fighters like 
Bettz. He added that both growers and dealers would have to go 
through a licensing program with health checks for growing 
conditions, "other types of checks" for dealers and regulations to 
ensure they don't sell to teenagers.

A look at the medical marijuana industry shows how problematic the 
business of selling weed remains.

"It is a new industry and there are a lot of problems that need to be 
resolved," said Kelowna's Don Schultz, founder of Greenline Academy, 
which helps potential medical marijuana growers navigate the Health 
Canada licensing process.

Schultz makes it clear that he advocates only the proper, permitted 
use of marijuana as a medicine.

Currently, patients with a prescription for marijuana are allowed to 
get their medicine from three places: grow it themselves, buy it from 
Health Canada or buy it from a designated grower, typically a home 
based operator with a limit on the number of plants.

Those growers and legitimate offshoot businesses associated with the 
industry say they're beset by roadblocks from law enforcement to 
banks to government bureaucracy.

Then there are the municipal officials, police and firefighters who 
complain of abuse of licenses and security threats linked to illegal activity.

The problems associated with the industry has led to changes in the 
rules set out in Health Canada's Marihuana for Medical Purposes 
Regulations, which comes into force in April 2014.

By April 1 next year, personal use and designated grower licensees 
will no longer be allowed to grow their own crop.

They'll have to buy their medicine through a licensed commercial producer.

However Schultz anticipates the federal government's new rules will 
be delayed until 2016 at the earliest because of lawsuits from 
personal medical marijuana growers.

Many of the 28,115 Canadians currently authorized to use marijuana 
can't afford the anticipated price hike, and growing their own at 
home is the only option.

A notice posted by Health Canada on the new regulations estimates the 
current $1.80-a-gram cost for marijuana will rise to $8.80 a gram 
when the program takes effect.

The Harm Reduction Journal, in a 2012 assessment of Health Canada's 
medical marijuana program, found 61 per cent of Canadian 
medical-marijuana users have an income below $30,000.

Although Schultz is confident that people will continue to be allowed 
to grow at home for years to come, police in Creston B.C. have 
already begun hindering the medical grower licensing process.

Designated grower applicants require criminal record checks so 
Creston RCMP Staff Sgt. Bob Gollan decided to implement new rules for 
accessing criminal histories in anticipation of the new legislation.

Applicants in Creston must now get a letter from their district 
stating they can operate commercially in their area, provide their 
last 10 addresses, prove ownership of the property or get permission 
from the property owner and provide RCMP a detailed security plan.

"That's to get a criminal background check," he said. "It's something 
that we're looking at in our detachment because we're sort of unique 
in that the number of medical marijuana licenses that people are 
applying for in this area... has significantly increased in the last 
several months."

Health Canada states that individuals are allowed to apply as 
designated growers until September this year and are allowed to grow 
at home until March 2014.

However Gollan said he's dissuading people from going ahead with 
their medical marijuana applications.

"I'm just telling them 'I could do a criminal record check but you're 
not going to get it approved because there's a transition year 
between April 1 of this year and March 31 of 2014 where all these 
small ones are supposed to be shutting down or transitioning into 
these larger commercial sites,'" he said.

Gollan said his uppermost concern was the security of officers 
responding to homes where medical marijuana is being grown. He added 
that he's complying with legislation.

"Under the act it says you have to have this stuff in place," he 
said. "I spoke to Don Schultz and... I got his training reference 
manual and everything that I'm asking is listed in his training manual."

The RCMP federal media relations office did not respond to inquiries 
by press time.

Schultz said the manual does not list Gollan's requirements for a 
criminal record check.

In June 2011, media attention got West Kelowna RCMP to rescind its 
policy to withhold criminal record checks for individuals planning to 
use them for growing after Schultz blew the whistle.

Schultz said he isn't surprised by the resistance.

"You run into these people... who think they're protecting the 
community but really they're probably damaging it," said Schultz.

"What they're doing is creating criminal activity because these 
people are going to grow underground."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom