Pubdate: Tue, 11 Jun 2013
Source: Comox Valley Echo (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Comox Valley Echo
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/785
Author: Philip Round

NIPPING MEDICAL GROW-OPS IN THE BUD

Big changes to the federal licensing system that allows marijuana to
be grown for medicinal purposes are set to be introduced next year.

And in the Comox Valley, the implications are raising concerns on two
very different fronts.

The first is among individuals holding current licences who expect to
lose them, forcing them to buy supplies from a limited number of more
commercial growers to be authorized under the new licensing regime.

The second is from neighbourhoods where residents voice concerns the
new licences will authorize more intensive pot production on fewer
sites - and they could be on the front line when problems arise as a
result.

At present, Health Canada can grant personal production licences to
people who have been legally prescribed marijuana for medicinal
purposes, or to designated people who are allowed to supply it to
medical users under strict conditions.

Who actually holds such licences is not public information. That's
because, in most circumstances, marijuana is classed as an illegal
drug, so advertising to the world where it is being produced could
well result in law and order issues.

Bizarrely, even the police don't know who holds all the licences,
although if they come across a grow-op during a property search, they
have authority to check out with Health Canada whether it is legal or
not before threatening charges.

And as cultivating marijuana without a licence is against the law,
local governments have never had the authority to regulate where and
how it is grown through zoning or other planning and land use bylaws.

Some municipalities have chosen to get round this by carrying out
building inspections where B.C. Hydro accounts show extremely high
electricity use - sometimes, but certainly not always, a clue to the
existence of illegal grow-ops through the intense light and heat
required to speed plant growth.

Although no one outside of Health Canada knows exactly how many legal
medical grow-ops there are, in B.C. alone police chiefs believe there
are more than 1,300 and there's no question quite a few of them are in
the Comox Valley.

Ernie Yacub of the Comox Valley Compassion Club says he is aware of
several with licences. Some are just individuals in their own homes
growing a few plants for their own consumption, while others are more
extensive.

He sees the upcoming licensing changes as turning over the supply
chain to big business to the potential detriment of the little guy on
a fixed income with medical needs.

The new regulations will require much more in the way of security and
control, with the price to users reflecting increased costs of
production and oversight. On the other hand, Yacub acknowledges,
bigger operators might have economies of scale by being able to grow
much more and more efficiently.

But for users currently licensed for just a few plants, and producing
their essential medication for less than $2 a gram, the whole scene
will inevitably change.

It is difficult to gauge how it will all work out, he says, and if
marijuana was not a prohibited substance in the first place he
believes the issues now being faced would not be relevant.

But the government remains entrenched in its view, he suggests, and
each small change in the regulations had been prompted only as a
result of a succession of court rulings, not by any desire in Ottawa
to improve the system for the benefit of patients and citizens.

Several residents in rural parts of the Comox Valley north of
Courtenay are also concerned about the upcoming licensing changes -
but from a very different perspective.

The Echo understands almost 50 individual letters have already been
sent the federal health ministry on the subject, seeking assurances
that existing licensees will not automatically be 'grandfathered' to
become new licence holders.

The residents say they understand what they government is trying to do
by concentrating production on fewer but more secure sites.

But while being supportive of the need for Canadians to access
marijuana for medicinal purposes, they say the current system is open
to abuse.

"While Health Canada employs inspectors, there are so few of them that
inspections are rarely, if ever, carried out on most licensed
premises," states at least one of the letters to Health Minister Leona
Aglukkaq MP.

"This is regardless of the fact that municipalities and first
responders - including fire and police officials - have raised, and
continue to raise, serious safety and public health concerns regarding
production of marijuana within the grounds, or in out-buildings, of
private dwellings in residential areas."

In other letters, several residents say they have been told that
neither the RCMP nor Comox Valley Regional District have any
jurisdiction or authority to address their key concerns.

That point was confirmed to the Echo by the CVRD, which advised it had
no power to pass or enforce bylaws on the subject, and no right to
know which premises were licensed. The RCMP's local Detachment
confirmed they, too, had no master list of licensed addresses on which
to draw.

The residents also complain about the lack of facility inspection by
Health Canada and the lack of authority for alternate inspections by
lower levels of government.

And they voice health concerns over airborne pollen and fungal spores
"over which local and regional environmental health staff appear to
have no monitoring or enforcement jurisdiction."

In addition, they point to "noxious smells" from an existing licensed
grow-op, said to be especially strong when there is temperature
inversion in the Valley.

And some say the proximity of that facility to their homes makes them
fear for their safety. "The police need the authority to be more
proactive in protecting neighbourhoods close to legal grow-ops, as the
risks potential include home invasion from wrongly identified
addresses, fire hazards, increase traffic and increased crime," they
suggest.

Another letter to the ministry includes the line: "We do not question
the value of medical marijuana in benefiting the lives of those who
need it, but the medical profession and Health Canada need to ensure
that grow-ops licensed to supply it do not destroy other people's
lives in the process."

The residents whose letters the Echo has seen all argue that their
neighbourhood is not a suitable or safe location for a licensed
grow-op even at its current scale of operation, let alone a much bigger one.

Industrial-scale operations such as extensive commercial grow-ops
should be on industrial-scale sites or remote rural areas where
concerns from nearby residents would not be an issue.

To help achieve this, they call on the federal government to tighten
the new regulations to allow local government to enact zoning or other
bylaws "that could prevent production facilities being established in
residential areas where home owners, their families and neighbours are
potentially at risk - such bylaws to include penalties, including the
power of closure, if they are in contravention."

The residents say as well as taking their concerns direct to the
health minister and Health Canada officials, they intend to pursue the
issues with local MP John Duncan and MLA Don McRae.

They also hope to secure the support of local government, particularly
their own regional district, in seeking bylaw powers as part of the
new regulations.
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MAP posted-by: Matt