Pubdate: Thu, 18 Feb 2016
Source: Langley Advance (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.langleyadvance.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1248
Author: Matthew Claxton

LANGLEY MAN UPSET BY MEXICO REMOVAL

Randy Caine Suspects It Was a Side Effect of Local Issues

A Langley medicinal marijuana advocate is worried he may not be able 
to travel abroad safely after he was abruptly ejected from Mexico.

Randy Caine worries that local controversy and opposition to his 
medical marijuana activism in Langley led to his being labelled a 
drug dealer by Mexican federal police.

Caine and his wife, Maureen, were on a trip to Puerto Vallarta in 
March of last year. When they landed, Caine was taken aside by 
Mexican federal police to an interrogation room, and asked about 
criminal activities, and if he had ever been arrested.

"They said I had been identified as a drug trafficker and a security 
threat," Caine said.

Caine was put on the same plane to return to Canada. Maureen had to 
arrange another flight to follow him.

Sunwing indicated that the information likely reached Mexico through 
the Canada Border Services Agency.

Caine fears that his disputes with local officials landed him a 
Mexican watchlist.

"If you start gossiping, your words can leave your community," Caine said.

Over the past decade, Caine has founded three outlets of Hempyz, 
which sells hemp-based products and marijuana-related gifts and 
novelty items. Caine sparred with Langley City over a bylaw that 
banned the sale of hemp-based products, even though other stores in 
the downtown sold products containing hemp.

In 2008, he founded the Langley Medical Marijuana Dispensary. The 
dispensary was raided in July 2011 by the RCMP, but Caine wasn't 
charged until October. He eventually received an absolute discharge 
after he pleaded guilty two regulatory violations of the Medical Marijuana Act.

Caine has made Freedom of Information requests for documents related 
to himself from various government agencies, including Canada Border 
Services and the City.

During his attempts to set up a marijuana dispensary, his run for 
City council in 2011, and after the police raid, civil servants and 
politicians emailed one another about Caine.

"He is a dealer and that is it," former City mayor Peter Fassbender 
wrote in one email to Coun. Rudy Storteboom in 2011.

Caine would like some answers about how Mexican authorities were told 
he was a drug dealer, when he has never been convicted.

"They're just determined that I'm a criminal," he said.

Years after founding a medical marijuana dispensary, Caine is looking 
at possibly getting a prescription himself.

He was diagnosed with lung cancer last year, undergoing chemotherapy 
and radiation.

"I'm at a point in my life where I would like to travel," Caine said.

But with the threat of being labelled a drug dealer, he plans to stay 
in Canada for now. Caine is still trying to get more clarity from the 
government over what happened and his status as an international traveller.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom