Pubdate: Wed, 31 Aug 2016
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Peter O'Neil
Page: A1

OWNER FEARS GROWING ABUSE

Woman Claims Property Damage Left by State-Sanctioned Grow-Op

It seems to me there are valid concerns on the part of the owners and 
tenant-patients in the current market.

A Coquitlam woman says she has incurred $135,000 in damage to her 
rental property due to a medical marijuana grow-op licensed by Health 
Canada without her knowledge or consent.

And she says the federal government's new regulations leave the door 
wide open to continued abuses, especially in B.C. where the number of 
state-sanctioned grow-ops has increased exponentially.

"I don't want this to happen to other property owners," said the 
woman, who shared documentation of her plight but spoke on condition 
of anonymity.

She said she's convinced there are many other victims who won't 
report the problem due to fear that their home's property value will plunge.

Urging landlords to amend their rental agreements, she said they 
should insist on bimonthly inspections and clauses prohibiting the 
manufacture or storage of drugs, whether legal or illegal. "The 
government has taken the position that homeowners do not have the 
right to prevent their homes from being turned into commercial-scale 
grow-ops, or even know about it," she said Tuesday.

"People need to protect themselves."

A B.C. lawyer who successfully fought the former government's attempt 
to crack down on state-sanctioned home grow-ops, meanwhile, said the 
lack of a requirement for landlord consent is a "defect" in the new 
regulations.

But Abbotsford lawyer John Conroy, lead counsel in the Allard vs. 
Canada case that led to the new regulations, amended his comment in a 
subsequent email exchange, saying a consent requirement could have an 
"unreasonable" impact on renters. He said he hopes the Trudeau 
government, which said the August regulations were an interim step en 
route to pot legalization, will resolve the dilemma.

"It seems to me there are valid concerns on the part of the owners 
and tenant-patients in the current market that will hopefully 
ultimately disappear in a legal market."

Health Canada's new regulations, which took effect last week, were in 
response to the Federal Court of Canada's Allard decision in February.

The case involved four B.C. residents who challenged the former 
Conservative government's 2013 requirement that patients buy pot from 
government-regulated suppliers rather than grow it.

Justice Michael Phelan concluded the restrictions violated their 
charter rights. He dismissed the government's argument that they were 
justified for health and safety concerns - from fires to violent 
break-ins to severe mould.

A Health Canada official said Tuesday that the government's 
regulations strike "an appropriate balance" between the rights of 
patients and public safety.

The new rules are nearly identical to those of the 2001 regime, and 
that's a problem for the Coquitlam resident.

She complained that the new system doesn't require the owner's 
knowledge or consent when a tenant makes a successful application. 
(Consent is only required if the licence-holder doesn't live in the 
rental property.)

The second is that the regime, relying on the recommendations of the 
patients' physicians, allows for quantities vastly higher than what a 
typical user requires.

In her case, the grow-op she discovered last year in her two-storey 
rental home - located across the street from an elementary school - 
contained 400 plants that were being grown for illicit sale, 
generating $20,000 a month.

It was operating under the authorization of a Health Canada licence 
obtained not by her tenant, who shared the upper floor with his young 
son, but by two individuals who were paying him to run the grow-op in 
his basement.

(Because the applicants didn't obtain her consent she plans to sue 
Health Canada for failure to enforce its own rules on disclosure requirements.)

Health Canada statistics produced during the Allard case said the 
number of production licences in Canada soared from 83 on Dec. 31, 
2001, to just under 9,000 in 2011.

The total then more than tripled to a little over 28,000 by the end of 2013.

More than half - 16,010 - involved successful B.C. applicants even 
though the province has roughly 13 per cent of the Canadian population.

The data also showed that on Nov. 13, 2014, the B.C. applicants grew 
just under 1.7 million indoor plants - a staggering 69 per cent of 
the national total of a little over 2.4 million plants.

The average daily amount Health Canada authorized patients to use was 
18.2 grams of dried marijuana.

That's between 18 and 37 joints a day.

Justice Phelan, in his February decision, said experts "largely 
agreed" that the recommended daily amount of medicinal pot ranged up 
to five grams a day for most patients.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom