Permits Required, Agricultural Location Needed People in Surrey who use or grow medical marijuana will soon have to obtain municipal permits and growers will have to relocate to an agricultural area. Surrey council endorsed a plan that would place restrictions on how and where medical marijuana is grown and stored in this city. Since 2003, people with certain medical conditions - such as glaucoma, spinal cord injury, pain or nausea from cancer or HIV and epileptic seizures - have been allowed to use marijuana for medicinal purposes. [continues 458 words]
It's round two for the federal Conservatives' goal of getting tough on pot growers. After having the Senate gut an earlier attempt at setting minimum sentences for growing marijuana, the Harper government will now try to push through Bill S-10, which features a mandatory six-month jail term for growing six pot plants. The Liberals, meanwhile, vow to block the bill, which critics say is heading in the opposite direction Canada has taken on the issue of marijuana over the past several years. [continues 215 words]
Surrey is watching closely as the District of Mission faces a class action lawsuit against the city for its grow-op fighting program. The Electrical Fire Safety Initiative (EFSI) was started in Surrey about five years ago and has been initiated in other municipalities including Mission, where it's called the Public Safety Inspection Team (PSIT). Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis is the architect of the program and said he's intrigued to see what happens when a group in Mission asks council to dismantle the program today (Monday). [continues 484 words]
The sample of home-made alcohol was warm and it burned with a blue flame when Jas Sandhu's father used a lighter to test it for purity. Back in the Punjab region of India, where Sandhu's father came from, the home-distilled booze called desi-sharab was also called daru, or medicine, by hard-working farmhands and labourers who used home-made or store-bought liquor to numb the aches and pains of hard physical work. The idea of drinking something you can light with a match was not appealing to the younger Sandhu, who never developed a taste for desi- sharab or any other liquor, for that matter. [continues 535 words]
Re: "Zapping grow-ops," Oct.15 Frank Bucholtz sings the praises of the Surrey fire chief thus: "His single-minded focus on the public safety aspect of grow-ops is a boon to law-abiding Surrey citizens, far too many of whom have been forced to put up with one or more grow-ops near their homes." Unfortunately, Mr Bucholtz neglected to mention that, as the well-intentioned crusade pushes the small-time, amateur growers out of the market, organized crime is handed an increased share of said market. [continues 57 words]
Almost six years after he was arrested for trying to smuggle 50 kilograms of cocaine into Canada through the Aldergrove border crossing, Ajitpal Singh Sekhon has been convicted. On Thursday afternoon, Surrey Provincial Court Judge Paul Dohm convicted the 34-year-old Sekhon on one count of importing a controlled substance and one count of possession for the purpose of trafficking. The guilty verdict marked an end to a drawn-out legal battle that began when another Surrey judge threw out the charges against Sekhon in a controversial 2007 ruling that would have required Canadian border guards to get a warrant before they searched any vehicles. [continues 200 words]
Crime is down in Surrey, and that's no anomaly. It's part of an ongoing trend in the community. This trend is particularly encouraging as the city continues to grow steadily. Surrey RCMP say the city's crime rate is at a 10-year low, and has been decreasing every year since 2003. Why is crime falling in Surrey? The answer is complex. One reason is the rapid pace of redevelopment. Older homes, which are often held for speculative purposes and rented to sketchy individuals, are being torn down at a faster rate and replaced by new subdivisions or townhouse developments. [continues 449 words]
Len Garis is no friend of marijuana growers. In fact, Surrey's fire chief has been a big thorn in their sides, with his aggressive initiative to shut down grow-ops through monitoring power usage. Now he's going to get a new tool in his arsenal - smart meters. BC Hydro is bringing in smart meters across the province, which will allow Hydro and homeowners to monitor power usage on a day-to-day basis. Municipalities will also have access to that information, and Garis plans to use it to give the Electrical Fire Safety Institute, a team of firefighters, police officers, inspectors and bylaw officers, even more up-to-date information on where marijuana is being grown in Surrey. [continues 401 words]
New BC Hydro technology will enable cities to shut down every illegal pot grow-op within their borders, according to Surrey's fire chief. The province has ordered the installation of "smart meters" in every home throughout B.C. The devices will show homeowners - and BC Hydro - - their power usage in real time. Under Bill 25, municipalities will also have access to that data. Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis says that will mean an end to grow-ops in this city and any other that chooses to use the data. [continues 305 words]
The rules are about to get a lot more stringent for people repairing their homes after a marijuana grow-op has been found. The city is strengthening its Controlled Substance Property Bylaw, placing more restrictions on how the homes are repaired. Often, houses with grow operations have unsafe wiring and suffer extensive moisture damage. Currently, when a home is identified as a former marijuana grow operation, a consultant is hired to decide if the building is safe. If not, the city takes away occupancy permits until it is made safe. [continues 177 words]
Surrey is watching closely as the City of Pitt Meadows prepares to ban people from growing medical marijuana in that municipality. Health Canada allows the medicinal use of marijuana for several conditions, including severe pain or muscle spasms from multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or disease, pain or nausea from cancer or HIV and seizures from epilepsy. Tonight (Tuesday), Pitt Meadows will hold a public hearing on a bylaw amendment that would ban the growing of marijuana for medical purposes. It would become the first city in Canada to disallow the federally sanctioned activity. [continues 267 words]
Surrey's crackdown on marijuana grow-ops hasn't slowed down a bit since the courts ruled that warrants are required before searches are conducted. Since its inception in 2004, Surrey's Electrical Fire and Safety Initiative (EFSI) has reduced the number of marijuana grow operations in this city from thousands to about 200. Under the system, municipal teams - including fire, bylaw officers and police - visit homes where BC Hydro reports higher-than-normal power consumption. The occupants get a warning notice that they have 72 hours to allow an inspection. Most of the time, grow operators have packed up and left by the time inspectors arrive. [continues 220 words]
Re: Driving stoned is not like being drunk (Letters, June 11). Dear Mr. Barth, while the first part of your argument has some validity, in that testing lacks a degree of equality, and that "positive" is a blanket result. Tests for blood alcohol is measured as percentage, and most other drugs are being measured in "trace" amounts. The fact remains that most of the drugs being tested for are illegal, therefore should not be in your system while in a position of responsibility, ie. driving, on the job, group representation. [continues 146 words]
Re: "Driving-while-stoned suspension unfair: Lawsuit," The Leader, May 28 The thing about this egregious law is that anyone who caught a whiff of second hand pot smoke three weeks or even two months ago could still show "positive" on a police test, just as poppy-seed bagel enthusiasts often test positive for opiates. Imagine getting popped for drunk driving five days after a sip of beer, and you see the kind of legal "stacked deck" that Canadian pot users are up against. [continues 194 words]
Surrey's fire chief has been named adjunct professor to the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV). Len Garis has worked closely with the university in the past on several studies, including marijuana grow operations in Surrey, and how likely homes are to burn. UFV criminology professor Darryl Plecas said that Garis is a great pick for adjunct professor. "We are thrilled to have Chief Garis join the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice as an adjunct professor," Plecas wrote. "The guy is a genius, his approach is consistently scientific and evidence-based, his initiatives are cutting edge, he is constantly coming up with fundamentally better ways of doing things, he's an outstanding teacher, our students love him, and he is a highly respected leader in the field of public safety. Needless to say, his contributions to public safety in Canada have been significant." [continues 83 words]
A 24-hour driving suspension for being impaired by marijuana is inherently unfair because there is no "dispute mechanism" to determine whether a driver actually is high, a lawyer for a Surrey man is arguing. A lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court on behalf of Sukhpal Singh Johal says a Surrey RCMP officer was wrong to suspend Johal's licence after Johal rolled his car on March 22 on 64 Avenue near 168 Street. Around 3:45 a.m. Johal flipped his vehicle onto its roof when he clipped a stationary flatbed truck. [continues 179 words]
Would you like to know how to end all of the problems associated with indoor marijuana grow operations, both legal and illegal? End pot prohibition. Most folks would grow their cannabis outdoors during the summer months because it would cost next to nothing - no lights, fans, etc. There would be no risk of electrical fires, and no mold issues. This should please the fire chiefs. And because anyone can grow it, you would put the lucrative drug trade out of business. Less violence with competing organized crime groups will mean that our streets would be safer. This should please the police. [continues 56 words]
B.C.'s highest court has struck down Surrey's grow op program, saying that it infringes the right to unreasonable search and seizure. Surrey' Fire Chief Len Garis said it will add some time to the process in order to obtain an administrative warrant, but the program will continue. Surrey embarked on the Electrical Fire and Safety Initiative in 2004, and has dramatically decreased the number of marijuana grow operations in this city. Under the system, municipal teams - including fire, bylaws and police - - visit homes where BC Hydro reports higher-than-normal power consumption. [continues 320 words]
The federal government is currently reviewing its options regarding access to medical marijuana. At least one of the items the government is examining is public safety, which is welcome news to local officials. Health Canada allows the medicinal use of marijuana for several conditions, including severe pain or muscle spasms from multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury or disease, pain or nausea from cancer or HIV and seizures from epilepsy. Federally licensed medical marijuana grows have been a problem, according to Surrey Chief Len Garis, who takes issue with the fact many of them are electrically unsafe. [continues 408 words]
Re: "Surrey grow-op tactics not for us," The Leader, May 7. Criminologist Daryl Plecas has been a paid shill for the RCMP. Any "study" he conducts should be taken with a grain of salt. That aside, of course any decrease in cannabis production in Surrey is compensated for elsewhere - that is basic supply and demand. Our only real choice about cannabis is whether we want it grown and sold by licensed farmers and storekeeper or whether we want to leave it as is. I choose regulation over black markets. Kirk Tousaw, Executive Director Beyond Prohibition Foundation [end]
