Is eating a pot brownie each day to help with your chronic pain as bad for you as regularly lighting up a cigarette? Canadian life insurers say the two activities pose the same risk and demand the same higher premiums from clients. The insurance industry's national trade association argues the standard policy among insurers of tacking on increased costs to marijuana users - regardless of whether they smoke, vape or eat the drug - is based on available research. The group also suggests pricier premiums could be due to the severity of a medical marijuana patient's underlying conditions. [continues 610 words]
Vancouver has issued its first business licence to an illegal marijuana dispensary, as the city presses ahead with a landmark set of municipal bylaws in Canada aimed at regulating the sector. The Wealth Shop was granted a licence this week to operate in a shopping complex on West 10th Avenue in the tony Point Grey neighbourhood, near the University of British Columbia. Malik Sayadi, who has been in charge of hiring for the store, said the group of young local entrepreneurs behind the dispensary likely benefited by not joining in on the green rush of the past several years. [continues 645 words]
Health Officials Are Looking into the Practice of Some Former-Soldiers' Groups Getting Kickbacks From Medical-Marijuana Producers The recent explosion in the number of veterans being reimbursed for medical marijuana, flagged by the Auditor-General in a critical report, is being fuelled by groups in the Atlantic provinces connecting former soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder with licensed growers hungry for patients. The practice has raised flags at Health Canada, where officials have looked into efforts by some veterans groups to leverage kickbacks from medical producers in exchange for providing them with patients. [continues 673 words]
Toronto has unseated Vancouver as Canada's de facto cannabis capital due to an ongoing explosion in illegal dispensaries, while officials begin shutting down dozens of shops in the West Coast city to enforce a landmark new bylaw. The owner of a cannabis consulting firm who has been tracking the rapid growth of the illicit sector following last fall's election win by the federal Liberals, who have promised to legalize the drug, says Toronto's wide-open market is now supporting more than 100 pot shops. [continues 688 words]
The City of Victoria is considering rules for its illegal cannabis dispensaries that would be more permissive than Vancouver's landmark bylaw, permitting the sale of controversial "edibles" and allowing pot shops to be located closer to schools. Medical marijuana advocates in the provincial capital praised the draft rules for the city's 32 existing dispensaries, which will be voted on by council later this week. The new proposal comes as officials in Vancouver began cracking down on dispensaries, handing out tickets to nearly two dozen shops over the weekend. [continues 695 words]
As many as three-quarters of Vancouver's illegal cannabis dispensaries have been ordered to close by Friday, though it's a deadline many are expected to ignore, setting off a process of fines and potential court actions that could take months to resolve. When the country's first set of rules targeting pot shops takes effect, the city is opting to ticket - not raid - dispensaries that have been rejected in a continuing process to hand out a small number of coveted business licences. Those tickets could start a drawn-out battle that could last until after the federal government introduces legislation to legalize recreationalmarijuana next year. [continues 756 words]
Four Vancouver cannabis dispensaries that enjoy support from the community can pursue a coveted business licence despite operating closer to schools and community centres than allowed, says the independent panel that can grant exemptions to the city's new bylaw. But three other dispensaries are suing the city, arguing the five members on the Board of Variance unfairly rejected their appeals - under pressure from city staff - to operate within the 300-metre buffer zones. On Wednesday, while thousands of cannabis users were celebrating at Vancouver's Sunset Beach 4/ 20 party, B. C. Compassion Club Society founder Hilary Black was speaking at a hearing along with several patients and the non-profit's long-time lawyer and prominent cannabis activist John Conroy. [continues 581 words]
Ottawa has decided not to appeal a Federal Court ruling that struck down a ban on patients growing their own medical marijuana, and instead will rewrite its rules by the end of the summer to make cannabis more affordable and accessible to patients. Health Minister Jane Philpott told reporters outside Parliament on Thursday - the deadline for appealing last month's landmark ruling - that the government will meet the Aug. 24 deadline set by the court to update its regulations. "The Federal Court's concern was that, under the current regulations, medical marijuana was not appropriately affordable and accessible to Canadians, and so those are the parts of the regulations that we are required to address," Dr. Philpott said. "At this point, I am not going to speculate as to what kind of regulations will be put in place or how the current regulations will be amended, but certainly we will take into respect every recommendation of the court decision." [continues 532 words]
After a successful court battle to shut down one of Don Briere's illegal pot shops in Abbotsford, the city is now asking a judge to outlaw his remaining franchise and ban the cannabis entrepreneur from operating in the community. The City of Abbotsford filed a petition this week to stop Mr. Briere, owner of the largest chain of dispensaries in Canada, or any of his partners from running a pot shop in the city without a valid business licence - something the mayor says Mr. Briere will never obtain as long as marijuana remains illegal. The city is also asking a judge to force Mr. Briere's business to pay all outstanding fines, which bylaw officers have been levying almost daily as they ticket the store on South Fraser Way for operating illegally. [continues 527 words]
More of Vancouver's illegal cannabis dispensaries are expanding their operations to Toronto, eyeing a larger market with zero regulations, especially with new bylaws on the West Coast threatening to disrupt their business. Vancouver's pot shops have grown steadily in the past several years, topping 100 before the city decided to pass bylaws designed to both regulate them and reduce their numbers. The industry has also taken off in Toronto, with dozens opening there in recent months and those within the sector saying Vancouver is playing a major role. [continues 758 words]
Pot: Mail-Order Delivery Model Is ' Too Restrictive' The federal government should use a court decision ordering it to rewrite the rules on medical marijuana as an opportunity to legalize the storefront sale of such medicine, experts and commercial growers say. A Federal Court judge in British Columbia ruled earlier this week that patients have a right to grow their own medical marijuana, overturning regulations that forced them to purchase the drug through federally licensed producers. Justice Michael Phelan gave the federal government six months to rewrite the current regulations. [continues 738 words]
Sick Canadians have the right to grow their own medical marijuana, a Federal Court judge ruled Wednesday, striking down a ban on home growing that was introduced when Ottawa moved to a system of large-scale commercial producers. The decision, released Wednesday, will force the federal government to rewrite the rules for medical pot for the second time in just a few years - a process that will unfold as the Liberals also work to legalize the drug for recreational use. [continues 595 words]
Canada's licensed pot producers are pushing Ottawa to exempt patients from paying any sales tax on their products, which would give medical marijuana the same tax status as prescription drugs. The Canadian Medical Cannabis Council, a trade group representing three commercial producers, argues the tax change would allow them to compete with illegal dispensaries, which have exploded in number across the country. Philippe Lucas, executive director of the council, said he met with a policy adviser to Finance Minister Bill Morneau during pre-budget consultations last week. [continues 638 words]
Board of Variance to Hear From Marijuana Shops Seeking to Work Around Strict City Zoning Bylaws Dispensaries seeking a reprieve from the strict buffer zones of Vancouver's new pot-shop bylaw have been dealt a blow by an independent development board, which appears set on keeping the number of storefronts to a minimum. The Board of Variance will hear from 58 dispensaries over the next nine months after it dismissed the first four pot-shop appeals last week because they were 300 metres from designated sites such as schools and community centres. [continues 641 words]
Canadians selling medical marijuana outside the licensed mail-order system must still watch out for the taxman, according to a Federal Court of Appeal ruling that reasserts Ottawa's right to collect sales taxes on any and all pot that is sold. In a unanimous decision released Monday, judges dismissed an appeal by Gabriola Island grower Gerry Hedges to stop the clawback of almost $ 15,000 in GST for marijuana he sold over several years to the Vancouver-based B. C. Compassion Club Society, Canada's oldest dispensary. [continues 632 words]
Health Canada is in process of approving applications for another 11 growers, up from three Every two months, Chris Skidmore crushes about half a kilogram of dried marijuana, soaks it in isopropyl alcohol, then strains the liquid through a coffee filter and into a rice cooker to burn off the remaining fumes - creating his own cannabis oil. He swallows a few drops of the oil every morning before breakfast, along with a cocktail of vitamin, fish oil and glucosamine chondroitin pills, to treat his HIV symptoms. [continues 796 words]
Vancouver's pot-shop bylaw doesn't keep storefront cannabis sales far enough away from students, a school board trustee says, and he's urging the city once again to toughen the licensing provisions. The board asked city council last June to force licensed dispensaries to keep 500 metres away from any school, but the new bylaw created a buffer zone of 300 metres. Now trustee Fraser Ballantyne said he has drafted a new motion asking for an increase to this limit after hearing again from a local resident and business owner. [continues 622 words]
Put Police Resources to Better Uses, Vancouver-Based Entrepreneur Says, After Danforth Location Is Busted The owner of Canada's biggest chain of illegal pot shops says that, as long as Toronto police keep raiding his recreational vapour lounge, he will keep reopening the controversial franchise, adding that the public appetite for such enforcement is waning in the face of coming legalization. Don Briere, owner of 19 Weeds locations throughout British Columbia, said Friday afternoon that GoodWeeds lounge on Danforth Avenue would reopen that evening after a dozen officers executed a search warrant Thursday night and arrested the couple who owns half the business. [continues 592 words]
Owners who paid for new class of business licence may lose sales of cannabis to liquor stores Marijuana dispensaries that have gone through a rigorous vetting process to get a coveted licence from the City of Vancouver could find themselves out of business anyway when the federal government legalizes the drug. Earlier this week, provincial Health Minister Terry Lake said he would prefer to see liquor stores - not cannabis shops - sell recreational pot once it's legalized. That prompted Councillor Kerry Jang, Vision Vancouver's lead on the marijuana file, to say Thursday that the city would owe nothing to those owners who went through the lengthy process of getting the new class of business licence to sell the illegal substance within city limits. [continues 547 words]
Fourteen applicants are one step closer to running a licensed marijuana dispensary in Vancouver as the city attempts to impose some control on the illegal retail sale of cannabis. The applicants include a current owner who acknowledges a past association with the Hells Angels, and the identity of those behind seven others remains unknown. Letters published on the city's development services website had names missing or redacted. The city has received public feedback from those within a two-block radius of these prospective locations, which are now awaiting a development permit before being audited for a new business licence. [continues 667 words]
Terry Lake Set to Lobby Federal Counterparts This Week for Revisions to System, Including Face-To-Face Sales at Pharmacies and Kiosks British Columbia's Health Minister says he will use meetings with his provincial and federal counterparts this week in Vancouver to push for recreational marijuana to be sold in locations that are strictly regulated and inspected, such as special kiosks at liquor stores. Terry Lake also said the federal medical marijuana system should be reformed to include face-to-face sales in outlets such as pharmacies instead of limiting it to the current mail-order system, though he said dispensaries - which are flourishing in cities such as Vancouver and Toronto - should not be involved. [continues 530 words]
Don Briere already runs the biggest chain of illegal marijuana dispensaries in the country, with 19 locations throughout B.C. Now, he's expanding eastward, inking deals to open six pot-shop franchises in Toronto. Sent to prison for once heading British Columbia's biggest network of marijuana grow operations, Mr. Briere is just one of dozens of entrepreneurs rushing to take advantage of Toronto's rapid rise as a centre for the illegal storefront sale of cannabis. Neither the city nor police could provide any data on how many have joined the rush, but academics say the sector has grown from about a dozen tucked-away businesses to roughly 40 locations in less than a year. And industry insiders predict there could be more than 100 in or near Toronto in the next couple of months. [continues 820 words]
A trade group representing most of Canada's licensed marijuana growers is calling on the federal government to curb the ongoing surge in illegal pot shops, which began in Vancouver and has now spread to Toronto. Reacting to news that Canada's largest city now has 40 dispensaries and could see more than 100 by this spring, the Canadian Medical Cannabis Industry Association is asking Ottawa to stop the rise of illegal marijuana stores, which operate outside the strict regulations that its commercial-scale producers must respect. [continues 354 words]
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled that despite oncoming legalization of cannabis, operating a dispensary is still illegal and he's granted the City of Abbotsford an injunction to shut down a controversial pot shop. Justice Paul Walker ruled Monday that the Weeds Glass and Gifts store on Clearbrook Road violated a city bylaw by not securing a business licence. The injunction bucks the trend of municipalities across B.C. increasingly regulating - not raiding - illegal pot shops, which are booming as legalization of the drug looms over the next year and beyond. [continues 520 words]
Police Complaint Commissioner Says Vancouver, Victoria Should Craft 'Clear' Criteria Determining When and How to Raid Dispensaries Drug squads in Vancouver and Victoria have discretion on whether to bust illegal marijuana dispensaries, but police boards in those cities should have clear policies on when and why they enforce the federal laws prohibiting such storefront pot sales, says B.C.'s municipal police watchdog. Police Complaint Commissioner Stan Lowe said in letters to the chairs of both boards that police departments should craft criteria determining which risks to public safety merit raiding a dispensary and that forces should provide detailed explanations of what such a process looks like. The letters, obtained by The Globe and Mail, contain recommendations that are not binding, but Mr. Lowe's suggestions come as police forces across Canada grapple with a burgeoning number of dispensaries. [continues 598 words]
Ottawa has given a commercial medical marijuana producer the first licence to sell cannabis oils through the federally regulated mail-order system, six months after a Supreme Court ruling forced Health Canada to allow access to edible forms of the drug. Peace Naturals Project Inc., based in Stayner, Ont., announced Monday that is the first commercial producer to be approved to sell cannabis oil. Fourteen other commercial producers are listed on Health Canada's website as being permitted to produce cannabis oil, but they are still awaiting bureaucratic approval to sell it. Currently, 20 producers are licensed to sell dried marijuana. [continues 643 words]
Patients, cannabis growers, doctors meet to discuss new drug regime Lacking any clear direction from Ottawa, the Arthritis Society has put together a diverse group that includes medical cannabis researchers, patient advocates, marijuana producers and bureaucrats to identify research priorities for the drug and create prescription guidelines for doctors. The national charity gathered a cannabis roundtable in Vancouver on Thursday for two days of discussions. It plans to produce a report in the new year, identifying areas where more research could benefit patients, while answering important questions from doctors - such as appropriate dosage levels, how cannabis should be administered and which patients could benefit the most. [continues 390 words]
The mayor of Nanaimo, B.C., says he has no power to stop local Mounties from raiding pot dispensaries even as municipal staff study whether to regulate the illegal storefronts and the federal Liberals prepare to legalize the drug. The local RCMP detachment in the Vancouver Island city executed search warrants on Tuesday morning at three pot shops. The Mounties said they received complaints from citizens that the stores sold to minors, had people on the street waving advertisements and sold or gave cannabis to people without legal medical prescriptions. [continues 568 words]
Many Credit Unions, However, Have Stepped in to Help Finance and Service the Legal Pot Sector As Well As Illegal Dispensaries On the cusp of receiving a coveted new licence to grow medical marijuana, Dan LaFlamme went looking for a bank to represent his family-owned business and encountered the kind of rejection those in the burgeoning industry have gotten used to. Two of them turned Canna Farms away before a third finally agreed. It was early 2014 and the company, based in Hope, B.C., had secured the fifth licence from Health Canada to produce medical cannabis for its new commercial mail-order system. [continues 1019 words]
The mayors of two of Vancouver Island's biggest cities are calling on the federal Liberal government to advise them what to do with the illegal pot shops cropping up in their communities and explain more of what the path to promised legalization could look like. This week, Victoria city council will debate a pot-shop bylaw proposal similar to the one Vancouver passed in June, while Nanaimo's mayor is trying to ease tensions between operators of 10 dispensaries and the local RCMP detachment, which has threatened to raid the stores if they do not stop illegally trafficking cannabis by the end of this week. [continues 585 words]
Since Trudeau Pledged to Legalize Marijuana Sales, Stores Are Seeing a 'Noticeable Increase' In Prospective Owners Asking Advice The day after the Liberals won the federal election, cannabis consultant Eric Nash's inbox was hit with 20 e-mails from people across Canada asking for guidance on how to open marijuana dispensaries. Until now, the growth of dispensaries - which remain illegal under federal drug laws - has generally been concentrated in Vancouver and Victoria, where local governments and police have largely allowed them to flourish. [continues 670 words]
CBC's Reefer Riches looks at how last year's state-sanctioned retailing of marijuana in Colorado and Washington is working out TV documentary filmmaker Cynthia Banks pitched the CBC on a pot film long before the Liberals began their late surge in the polls and legalizing the drug in Canada became a real possibility. Banks decided to see if any lessons could be learned a year into the state-sanctioned recreational sale of weed in Colorado and Washington. Reefer Riches, which aired late last week, looks at the highs and lows facing users, retailers, growers, cops and governments after the oft-stigmatized drug is brought into the mainstream from the black market. The Globe and Mail spoke to Banks about potpreneurs, feeling sick on the job and the road to legalization. [continues 764 words]
The price of pot at Vancouver's retail shops will likely stay relatively the same over the next year even if their numbers are drastically reduced in light of the city's new licensing system. The city announced Monday that only 11 of the 176 applicants had been approved to move on to the next stage of the licensing process, but that number could double once the city breaks up 10 clusters of shops located closer than 300 metres from each other. [continues 717 words]
One of the incoming Liberal government's more high-profile campaign planks is its plan to legalize recreational marijuana use, which raises the spectre that Vancouver's ubiquitous - and, at least for now, illegal - pot shops could soon bloom across the country. But long-time MP and recent Liberal health critic Hedy Fry said any move to allow storefront sales of cannabis - whether at retail shops or pharmacies, or both - would need approval from an upcoming task force comprising municipal, provincial and federal politicians, law enforcement, and public health and addiction experts. [continues 488 words]
Addiction experts, psychiatrists say full, frank discussion on possible risks of marijuana use is currently hampered by liability issue Legalizing and regulating marijuana would help - not hurt - young people who suffer from mental illness or use the drug to self-medicate, say psychiatrists and addiction experts, who argue that is the only way for the public to have an open dialogue on the harms associated with the illegal drug. Marijuana has emerged as an issue in the federal election campaign. The Liberals promise legalization, the NDP pledge at least to decriminalize it, and the Conservatives vow further crackdowns and are using the debate to attack their opponents. [continues 624 words]
Canadian doctors should use medical marijuana instead of frequently abused opioids to treat patients with neuropathic pain and a host of other conditions cannabis has been proven to combat, Vancouver-based HIV/AIDS researchers argue in a newly published editorial. Thomas Kerr, Julio Montaner and Stephanie Lake of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS argue the Canadian Medical Association is holding pot to a higher standard than other pain-relieving pharmaceutical drugs and is ignoring high-quality, peer-reviewed studies on the use of cannabis. Their editorial is in the latest edition of the Journal of the Canadian Public Health Association. [continues 598 words]
Is cannabis, as Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper claims, "infinitely worse" than tobacco, a substance that kills tens of thousands of Canadians each year? Definitely not, say medical researchers and addiction experts, who are refuting Mr. Harper's provocative comparison between cigarettes and marijuana. Mr. Harper has routinely brought up marijuana as a campaign issue, contrasting his government's tough stance against the drug with the Liberals' and Greens' plans to fully legalize it and the NDP's pledge to at least decriminalize it and study legalization. [continues 713 words]
Health Canada has sent out cease- and-desist letters to 13 illegal marijuana dispensaries and compassion clubs across the country, warning the RCMP could raid them if they do not shut down immediately, even those in cities where local police have mostly tolerated them. The department sent the letters on Wednesday demanding the dispensaries stop "all activities with controlled substances" immediately and submit a written statement confirming this action by Sept. 21. The threat is the first indication the federal government is prepared to intervene directly to shut down Canada's storefront dispensaries, most of which operate in Vancouver and Victoria. [continues 688 words]
Vancouver dispensaries that have been raided by police for allegedly selling cannabis to teens or being linked to gangs such as the Hells Angels have a slim chance of securing approval under the city's new licensing regime, says a councillor who was one of the main architects of the new pot shop rules. Councillor Kerry Jang, who oversees the marijuana file for the governing Vision Vancouver party, said city staff will seek input from the Vancouver Police Department's drug squad when reviewing applications under the new licensing system, which was approved in June. [continues 522 words]
Public-Health Researcher Says It Seems a Different Standard Is Being Applied to Marijuana Than to Prescription-Drug Advertising When the program guide for the Vancouver International Jazz Festival came out this past June, it included advertisements for four dispensaries that illegally sell marijuana. The dispensaries are among the hundred or so pot shops that have opened up throughout the city in the past several years. Soon after Health Canada caught wind of the ads, the department contacted festival organizers and demanded the ads be pulled from both the online and print versions of the guide. A spokesman for Health Canada told the media that any business promoting the sale of marijuana could face a maximum penalty of $ 5-million, two years in prison, or both. The organizers, unaware they were illegal, immediately complied. [continues 551 words]
Conservative Canadian politicians continue to feed myths such as the legalization of marijuana in Colorado has led to a spike in teen use and that a clear link has been established between cannabis use and mental illness, says an international network of drug policy scientists and academics. The Toronto-based International Centre for Science in Drug Policy attempted to inject itself into the federal election campaign on Wednesday by releasing a list of 11 common claims about the use and regulation of pot that research shows are actually incorrect. Such false claims about marijuana lead to policies that actually put youth at risk, the researchers say. [continues 583 words]
Newly released e-mails show health brass considered applying for exemption to federal laws to allow recreational use of the drug As Vancouver struggled to regulate its explosion of marijuana dispensaries, top provincial health officials considered how they could legalize the recreational use of the drug across British Columbia. In a series of e-mails released through a Freedom of Information request, the health officials acknowledged there would likely be little progress toward legalization while the staunchly anti-drug Conservatives hold power in Ottawa, instead suggesting such a radical change would likely come about only if the Liberals win the fall election. [continues 882 words]
For the past year and a half, David Hepburn has been travelling Canada, educating his fellow family doctors on why and when to prescribe medical marijuana. Speaking at conferences, sometimes sponsored by the commercial growers licensed by Health Canada, Dr. Hepburn runs through the history of cannabis prohibition and the research that has been done on the plant. He says he is trying to change the minds of a medical establishment loath to endorse a drug that has vast amounts of anecdotal evidence, but scant clinical trials, to support its use. He said cannabis can be a suitable medicine for patients suffering migraines, nerve-related pain, neurodegenerative conditions, such as MS, and symptoms such as insomnia or anxiety. [continues 664 words]
A cannabis evangelist is vowing to refuse an order from the City of White Rock to tear down the marijuana-focused "church" in his beachfront home by the end of the week. Several months ago, Robin Douglas erected a large tent for Church of the Holy Smoke patrons to gather in the backyard of the home he rents across the road from the tourist promenade along White Rock's beach. Mr. Douglas said up to 50 people a day drop by the makeshift lounge to hang out, smoke cannabis and ponder questions "regarding their spirituality." He said he guarantees patrons protection from police if they are inside his yard, but makes sure they know they could be arrested if they leave the sanctuary. [continues 643 words]
Bobby Fulton is a cannabis-oil evangelist. The Australian woman uprooted her family two weeks ago to spend the summer in Victoria so her two daughters suffering a rare degenerative lung disease could get a steady, legal supply of the drug. The family of seven has been given free accommodation in Victoria and free cannabis by a local marijuana advocate and says it is now taking advantage of last month's Supreme Court ruling ensuring a patient's right to consume cannabis derivatives, which Ms. Fulton credits with extending her daughters' lives. [continues 652 words]
Vancouver's pot shops may have a legal case if they challenge new city rules that charge them tens of thousands of dollars for a licence - far more than other businesses, including body-rub parlours and escort agencies, experts say. Joel Bakan, a law professor at the University of British Columbia, says a court could see the $30,000 fee charged to for-profit medical marijuana dispensaries as "as prohibitive, rather than merely regulatory." "Is there justification ... to charge a hundredfold more for a pot shop than for a pet shop? That is the question," Prof. Bakan said. [continues 449 words]
Health Canada Announces Rules Allowing 18 Licensed Growers to Offer a Concentrated Form of Cannabis Health Canada is allowing commercial medical-marijuana growers to produce and sell concentrated cannabis oil, but the government says the sale of edible products such as pot cookies and brownies will remain illegal. The department announced on Wednesday that it will allow 18 licensed producers to sell the oil as well as the dried marijuana buds they have been mailing to registered patients since the medical marijuana system was overhauled last year. Producers will not be able to sell seeds or any plant material that can be used to propagate marijuana. [continues 616 words]
The city's oldest marijuana compassion clubs and other nonprofit dispensaries may be able to sidestep the city's new bylaw that restricts them from being near schools and community centres. Councillor Kerry Jang, Vision Vancouver's spokesman on marijuana issues, has said new rules barring any pot shops within 300 metres of schools, community centres or other similar stores will apply to all Vancouver's existing 100 dispensaries. This could mean up to two-thirds may have to move to secure a special new business licence. [continues 526 words]
Citing a recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling, a B.C. lawyer has asked a Federal Court judge to strike down limits on how much medical marijuana can be carried at one time and whether an individual's grow site can be relocated. John Conroy is representing small-scale growers challenging the federal government's attempt to prevent them from cultivating their own pot and instead move to a regulated commercial system. Patients, or the producers they designate, are currently able to continue growing cannabis under the terms of a Federal Court injunction as they await a final decision. [continues 279 words]
Victoria's mayor says her city will look to emulate Vancouver's plan to regulate marijuana dispensaries despite warnings from the Conservative federal government that they are illegal and threaten public health. Councillors in Vancouver approved a plan this week to create a new class of business licence for dispensaries, impose hefty licensing fees and keep them away from other operators, schools and community centres. Processing of the licences is expected to start in the coming months. Municipalities across British Columbia are trying to figure out how to deal with medical marijuana dispensaries after about 135 sprouted in the province, including around 100 in Vancouver. The rest of the country is believed to have fewer than two dozen. [continues 592 words]
