Whistler council gives first two readings to zoning amendment bylaw - with more to come The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) is starting down the long, legislative road of legal recreational marijuana. At its first meeting of 2018 on Jan. 9, council gave the first two readings to a zoning amendment bylaw concerning cannabis retail, production and distribution - likely the first of many prior to federal legalization of the substance in July. With much still unknown about the full scope of legal cannabis in Canada and B.C., the zoning bylaw is more a preemptive measure than anything - it updates definitions to align with the new federal Cannabis Act, and reinforces the current status quo in Whistler, which limits cannabis production and distribution to a single site in Function Junction (operated by the Whistler Medical Marijuana Corporation). [continues 602 words]
Medical marijuana shops in the Sea to Sky are gearing up for a future of legalized weed. When you walk into Grass Roots Medicinal in Squamish you only get access to the waiting room. There, a small counter offers bongs and other glassware for sale. All the good stuff - the grass the store gets its name from - is locked up behind a second door, out of reach. To get there, you have to sign up to become a member, which means providing some proof of an ailment that cannabis might help you with. [continues 3513 words]
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana, philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist These words might be worth considering with the announcement that the Liberal Party of Canada is inching it's way to legalizing cannabis as promised in the last election. This week, we learned that the federal Liberals hope to have legislation in place by July 2018, with the formal announcement about the process to reach Canadians in time for the ubiquitous and upcoming 4/20 celebrations that always seem to pop up across Canada. [continues 728 words]
Council agrees to Temporary Use Permit option Vllage of Pemberton (VOP) council, at its regular meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 7, gave third and final reading to its zoning amendment regarding medical marijuana dispensaries. The bylaw was approved at first and second readings in January. The amendment, based on advice from VOP solicitors, defines and prohibits marijuana operations. The amendment has come up several times over the past few months as SWED Society applied to the VOP to permit a medical marijuana dispensary, and was the subject of a packed public meeting a week earlier in which most attendees voiced approval to allow such dispensaries. [continues 433 words]
Large crowd addresses council on proposed zoning bylaw amendment It was standing room only on Tuesday, Jan. 31 as Village of Pemberton (VOP) council undertook a meeting to gauge public opinion and the course of action on a proposed zoning bylaw amendment to prohibit medical marijuana dispensaries. Roughly 20 people addressed the proposed change - some of whom made emotional pleas to urge council to permit medical dispensaries in order to treat chronic pain or health ailments. Danielle Lawson, from Mt. Currie, told the crowd of her car accident a few years ago that has left her with chronic pain and nausea. [continues 814 words]
Zoning amendment on hold pending further information A request to the Village of Pemberton (VOP) council to amend zoning to allow for a medical marijuana dispensary has forced a quick and concerning debate for councillors. At the regular council meeting Tuesday, Oct. 4, a letter from Joseph Le requested a zoning bylaw change in order to allow a dispensary in the downtown core. But council was immediately confronted with the dilemma of which approach to take, and recognized that they are dealing with something they know little about. [continues 403 words]
Cannabis has been much in the news recently - though mostly to do with the growing pains Vancouver is having as it deals with an explosion of medicinal marijuana dispensaries over the last few years. It's a rather amazing tale really as you consider that the dispensaries are actually illegal. "... possession and sale of cannabis is a criminal offence, and possession of as few as six marijuana plants carries the risk of prosecution and up to 14 years in prison, wrote former B.C. Attorney General Geoff Plant in the Globe and Mail recently. [continues 843 words]
In 2012 Colorado voters legalized the sale and consumption of marijuana for recreational purposes. Some ski towns have embraced marijuana, treating it little differently than alcohol. But others have been biding their time. To Vail and other towns, cannabis use by visitors and residents is an undeniable reality. But that doesn't mean they will allow stores selling THC-infused products. Here in Canada recreational marijuana use is still illegal though access to medical marijuana has been completely reinvented. This has come with its own headache. [continues 3301 words]
In the 1980s and '90s, a lucrative and well-organized drug-smuggling network spanning Mexico, the U.S. and Canada had northern beachheads in a handful of small farming towns in southwestern Ontario and southern Manitoba. These communities were also home to tens of thousands of Old Colony Mennonites, a deeply conservative branches of one of Christianity's most traditional sects - similar to other pacifist and agrarian-based societies like the Amish or Hutterites. Ironic then, that it turned out they were the drug smugglers. [continues 820 words]
There's a famous experiment in the annals of learning. It involves a jar, a banana and a monkey. I know it sounds very similar to jokes that start, "There was a priest, a rabbi and a minister," but that's where the similarity ends. The experiment goes like this. The banana is put inside the jar and the jar is put inside a room. So is the monkey. Put inside the room, that is, not inside the jar. It's not that big a jar. The monkey being a monkey and the banana being a banana, it doesn't take long for the monkey to notice the banana and decide he/she would really like to eat it. This is where it gets good. [continues 998 words]
The pall of pot smoke coalescing over Skier's Plaza Sunday afternoon at forty minutes to five was not visible from orbiting surveillance satellites. It might have been had there not been a heavy cloud cover obscuring their cameras, the ones sensitive enough to take connect-the-dots pictures of the freckles on a bald man's head. What had been, in the hour or so before 4:20 p.m., persistent light wafting of sweet-smelling smoke from not-so openly puffed joints, gathered momentum quickly, like a skier straightlining a steepening slope. At 4:20 and thirty seconds, my eyes began to sting, my throat constricted slightly, my lungs laboured and my nostrils flared while the rest of the disparate parts I call myself swayed gently to the familiar patterns of songs made anthemic by Bob Marley and The Wailers, compliments of said Wailers, sans Bob in anything but spirit. [continues 1043 words]
Public hearing will be scheduled before bylaw approval Whistler is taking steps to curb a potential proliferation of medical marijuana facilities in the resort on the eve of nationwide changes to the system. On Tuesday council started the process of approving a new zoning amendment bylaw that will limit medical marijuana production to the existing facility in Function Junction. Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden said in all her years at the council table, she never expected to see a bylaw like this up for consideration. [continues 481 words]
Cultivator Looking To Courts To Help Fight New Regulations A Sea to Sky medical marijuana home grower is speaking out against new federal regulations he believes will put his health at risk. And he is slamming the government's characterizations, which suggest that home-growers cultivate in an unsafe manner, which puts neighbours at risk or creates a draw for criminals who want to steal the marijuana to sell on the streets. "It's the government's falsities of mould, danger and organized crime that are pushing this (program) to be removed," said the Sea to Sky resident, who Pique has agreed not to name. [continues 959 words]
Canada busts the mom n' pop grow-op while fostering the rise of biopharmaceutical marijuana On a bright spring morning in 2012, in the Kootenay region of B.C., Emma Wright* dropped her daughters off at their elementary school and returned to her log house to find three black SUVs parked under the apple trees and an armed, flak-jacketed RCMP unit in her kitchen. Her husband Peter* stood by wordlessly as a man dug through the freezer. In the living room, officers were taking family photo albums off the shelves. From upstairs there came the thumps and scraping sounds of furniture being moved. A cop dressed in black led an excited German shepherd into the bathroom on a tight leash. The officers had a search warrant. [continues 1695 words]
Health Canada Has No Authority To Ensure Home Growers Cease Production Eighteen licensed medical marijuana growers in Whistler will be forced to close their doors in the coming months thanks to changes in federal regulations. This has local officials concerned about potential safety and legal risks these home grow-ops could pose without a serious plan to enforce their closing. The concerns centre around Health Canada's lack of authority to ensure these grow facilities phase out production in a safe and timely manner. [continues 700 words]
Some matters reach a tipping point where the outcome is inevitable, although a few stick-in-the-muds usually succeed in making those things drag on forever. Human social evolution is a slow process. For example, take the issue of same-sex marriage: a 1999 Supreme Court ruling found that same sex couples were entitled to the same financial and legal benefits associated with marriage, but it took another six years, court challenges in every province, another trip to the supreme court and finally an act of Parliament to make it the law of the land. [continues 810 words]
Minister Says Goal Is to Create New Commercial Industry With medical marijuana growing laws changing in 2014, Canada's health minister, Leona Aglukkaq, has written about why the federal government wants to get out of the business of licensing growers. The change, due to take effect in March 2014, effectively privatizes and corporatizes medical marijuana crop growing. Aglukkaq said in the statement, shared to Canadian media, that: "When the Marijuana Medical Access Program was introduced in 2001 in response to a court decision, the number of people authorized to use marijuana for medical purposes stood at less than 500. Over the years that number has grown to more than 30,000. As a result, costs to taxpayers have continued to climb as Health Canada heavily subsidizes the production and distribution of marijuana for medical purposes." [continues 512 words]
Company Has Refined Medical Marijuana Coffee Shop Concept Ross's Gold is taking shape. The medical marijuana-coffee shop franchise planned by Olympic gold medal-winning snowboarder Ross Rebagliati, is developing slowly and carefully, said Rebagliati's business partner. "We came out of the gates in January really quite unplanned and were crushed by media requests," Patrick Smyth of Ocean Eclipse Venture Capital said. "Since then, we've developed the business model and branding per se. It has changed significantly. Originally, we thought we'd be able to be a dispensary. We cannot be a dispensary." [continues 580 words]
I don't know what they've been smoking in Victoria... but I wish they'd roll some more and pass it around a bit more freely. Our very own outgoing MLA, Joan McIntyre, has, belatedly, come out in favour of legalizing British Columbia's unofficial herb, marijuana. Tempting as it may be to make a joke about deathbed conversions, I'll gladly take any support this common sense movement can garner. Funny though, why is it that when Joan was actively holding office her lips were sealed and the only thing she was inhaling was the stale air of Liberal doublespeak? [continues 1056 words]
Corridor Grow Op Opens for "Limited Number" of Medical Marijuana Patients The numbers of medical marijuana growers and users are fast on the rise and one local grower is banking on this booming business for his B.C. bud. Statistics just released to Pique by Health Canada suggest that more medicinal marijuana growers are getting ready for legislative changes to the industry in the next two years. One Sea to Sky grower has convinced others of the potential of pot. Together with his investors, he has set up a small grow op facility in the Sea to Sky corridor, producing a couple of pounds of legal medical marijuana per cycle - about every two months - for a "limited number of patients" as allowed by Health Canada. [continues 1348 words]
