Pubdate: Fri, 24 Jan 2014
Source: Guardian, The (CN PI)
Copyright: 2014 The Guardian, Charlottetown Guardian Group Incorporated
Contact:  http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/174
Author: Dave Stewart

MEDICAL MARIJUANA MEETING SET FOR NEXT WEEK

Charlottetown Public Session On Wednesday

Residents in Charlottetown are going to have their say on the medical
marijuana issue next week.

The City of Charlottetown has scheduled a public meeting for
Wednesday, Jan. 29, to hear comments on that issue as well as a
rezoning application from Mel's Petro Can on St. Peters Road and the
addition of a new horse barn at the Charlottetown Driving Park.

The meeting takes place in the Georgian Room at the Rodd Charlottetown
Hotel on Kent Street, beginning at 7 p. m.

On the medical marijuana issue, the city may be paving the way for the
province's first production facility. Council recently voted 9- 0 to
proceed to the public consultation phase to consider an amendment to
the city's zoning and development bylaw.

Such an amendment would add the definition for medical marijuana
production facility.

That resolution also stipulates that such a production facility can
only be built in a heavy industrial zone or a business park industrial
zone, such as the bio-commons park in the former neighbourhood of
West Royalty.

The federal government launched a $ 1.3- billion free market in
medical marijuana last fall. Health Canada is phasing out an older
system that mostly relied on small-scale, homegrown medical marijuana
of varying quality, often diverted illegally to the black market.

Under new federal legislation, large indoor marijuana farms certified
by the RCMP and health inspectors will produce, package and distribute
a range of standardized weed, all of it sold for whatever price the
market will bear.

The first sales took place this past October, delivered directly by
secure courier.

This step by council is in response to the changes made
federally.

There is no application before the city for a medical marijuana
production facility but Coun. Rob Lantz, chairman of the planning
committee, said he has heard rumours that someone may be interested
and is in talks with the federal government about the possibility of
doing that in the P. E. I. capital.

As of October 2013, there were 37,400 medical marijuana users across
the country recognized by the department but officials project that
number will swell more than 10- fold, to as many as 450,000 people, by
2024.

Also on the public meeting agenda is an application to rezone a
portion of 8 Angus Dr. from single detached residential to mixed-use
corridor and for 413 St. Peter's Rd. to change from low density
residential to mixed-use corridor. Mel's Petro Can in the former
neighbourhood of East Royalty is looking for approximately half a
dozen additional parking spaces and, potentially, access off Angus
Drive.

The third item on the agenda is discussion of the development
agreement to allow a new horse barn at the CDP. Crews are in the
process of demolishing seven of the older barns at the track to make
way for a new barn that will house 120 horses in a $ 2- million
project being funded by horse owners along with the federal and
provincial governments.  
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