Pubdate: Tue, 14 Jan 2014
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2014 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Jimmy Thomson

BUDDING CONFLICT OVER GROW-OPS

Many municipalities are taking precautions against the coming wave of
medical marijuana operations

New federal medical marijuana laws could provide a lucrative
agri-business opportunity to growers - if municipalities will accept
the businesses.

The new rules that take effect April 1 govern how medical marijuana is
grown and distributed. They are much tighter than before and they
encourage large-scale operations rather than smaller, home-based ones
that are harder to monitor.

But B.C. growers are finding themselves stymied by municipalities that
don't want the large-scale operations. Meanwhile, smaller growers that
have invested in equipment and nurtured businesses under the old rules
are having to decide whether to go big, go rogue or shut down.

As of last week, Health Canada had received 383 applications for
commercial production. Many municipalities around Vancouver are taking
precautions against the coming wave of large, commercial medical
marijuana operations.

Delta is the most recent, having decided last week to ban all aspects
of medical marijuana production, following what many other
municipalities have done since the announcement of the Health Canada
changes last June.

Abbotsford, Chilliwack, and the Fraser Valley Regional District have
also severely restricted where grow-ops can put down roots.

"We don't want it grown in open fields," said Delta Mayor Lois
Jackson. "We also want it to be in an area where people will be safe
from the people who would attempt to break in or steal the product."

But federal law already covers growing marijuana in open fields, and
indoor operations require thorough security processes. Dana Larsen,
founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party and the owner of a medical
marijuana dispensary, says the municipalities are trying to solve a
problem that doesn't exist any more.

Regardless of the new rules, Mr. Larsen doubts that all of the small
growers currently licensed will dispose of their plants and shut down
when the word comes from Health Canada that their licences are obsolete.

"Some of our cultivators are people who have Health Canada licences
and some of them don't," he said. "Some of the ones who have Health
Canada licences are going to stop growing and some of them aren't. But
there's always going to be marijuana for sale out there. We purchase
from a lot of different people."

James Poelzer, the young chief operations officer of Agrima
Botanicals, said he and his company have been treading carefully to
meet all of the various federal and municipal strictures as Agrima
prepares for commercial distribution under the new rules.

Mr. Poelzer said his company searched around for a municipality that
would be willing to have them and chose Maple Ridge, where grow
facilities are allowed on agricultural land.

"We built on [Agricultural Land Reserve] with the thought that it
[marijuana] would fall under the ALR as an approved product that
should be grown on farmland," he said.

But while the law recognizes medical marijuana as an agricultural
product, some municipalities want provincial authorization to ban its
cultivation even from farmland.

"I think that's based on preconceived notions of what a marijuana
production facility is," said Mr. Poelzer.

With state-of-the-art fire-suppression systems, air filters,
painstaking supply chain monitoring, and constant human and electronic
surveillance, these are not the grow-ops of the past.

"You don't get your licence unless you've taken those into
consideration," said Mr. Poelzer. The video monitoring systems alone
can be composed of dozens of security cameras recording video that
must be kept for at least two years.

Vancouver City Councillor Kerry Jang derides the new Health Canada
regulations, saying that no resources have been provided to the local
governments to deal with individual growers who disregard the new
rules and continue growing.

Since the current system came into place in 2001, Health Canada has
issued more than 16,000 licences to growers in B.C., but has not
provided local authorities with their locations. As a result, Mr. Jang
says the city will not be devoting any resources to enforcing the new
laws.

"It's their mess," he said. "Until they get their act together and
really think these things through, the current system of providing
medical marijuana for individual use with a prescription and all the
permits is fine."

Mr. Jang believes that the changes are not motivated by a desire to
improve the system, but rather to restrict the program altogether.

"If this is just an ideological thing," said Mr. Jang, "then it has no
place in public health."  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D