Despite fearing reprisals from local criminals, one neighbourhood organizer is doing what she can to make South Haney a little safer, one block at a time. "I'm on their hit list," said Sara, discussing area criminals. She said police had advised her not to use her last name for fear she might be targeted. Sara is an organizer for the South Haney neighbourhood watch. The group is her attempt to create the same sense of community and familiarity between law-abiding citizens that she believes exists in the drug community, which she says shares the neighbourhood. [continues 399 words]
Editor: Re: 'Spinning Wheels' on grow ops, TIMES, July 13 The Conservative government has no interest in legalizing marijuana because prohibition makes crime, and crime necessitates cops. The whole thing is a scam designed to accustom the public to an ongoing and ever-increasing police presence in their daily lives. It has nothing at all to do with public safety, it is all about control. "King said marijuana is so highly used it's hard to regulate." Nonsense. This is cut-and-paste legislation. A twelve-year-old could figure it out. [continues 570 words]
Pitt Meadows is considering a change to zoning bylaws that would ban medical marijuana production in the municipality. Individuals who hold the proper permit from Heath Canada can grow marijuana for medical consumption in Pitt Meadows and across Canada. Patients can obtain a permit from Health Canada allowing them to possess marijuana to alleviate symptoms associated with cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, severe arthritis and spinal cord injuries and disease. A separate permit, also issued by Health Canada, is required to grow the drug. A grower's permit can be held by the patient or a person selected by the patient to provide the drug. Although the federal government allows production of medical marijuana, advocates of medical marijuana have been in a tug of war with municipalities that claim production of the drug poses a significant safety hazard for residents. [continues 463 words]
MP says medicinal marijuana program being reviewed, but councillor wanted to talk about decriminalizing the drug. Maple Ridge Councillor Linda King grilled MP Randy Kamp on why the federal government doesn't decriminalize marijuana Monday. Kamp was at a council workshop to give an update on various topics, including how the federal government is planning to deal with medicinal marijuana dispensaries popping up all over the country. The Always Growing Green Society opened up its doors in Maple Ridge in May, causing council concern about how to deal with it. [continues 988 words]
Pitt Meadows council affirmed that marijuana grow-operations aren't allowed anywhere in Pitt Meadows or as a farming operation. Because medical marijuana is permitted by Health Canada for people with serious illnesses, people who are authorized to possess it can get it from Health Canada, grow their own or designate someone to grow it on their behalf. The City of Pitt Meadows consulted with their lawyers who recommended that, in order to clarify the prohibition, the city should define grow-operation and prohibit it as a home-based business. [continues 62 words]
Superintendent Dave Walsh said The Always Growing Green Society (TAGGS) medicinal marijuana dispensary that opened up in May as well as issues with legal marijuana grow-ops are still on the police's "radar screen." "We're continuing to work with the department of Justice, Health Canada, our RCMP legal services. It is an issue not just in Maple Ridge but across the Lower Mainland...and Canada," said Walsh. Councillor Craig Speirs said the federal government "has got to examine this in a positive manner as a health issue to get it away from the criminal element as much as possible given the present climate." [continues 425 words]
Ridge Meadows RCMP will have to get by for three to six months without any police cells at the local detachment due to retrofits required under federal legislation to ensure prisoner and staff safety. "It's going to be a bit of a logistics challenge for us," said Superintendent Dave Walsh. Walsh said the detachment is still consulting with the contractor about how long it will take but the retrofit requires removing load bearing walls and essentially gutting the cells. He said Ridge Meadows RCMP will have to take prisoners to Coquitlam during the renovation period, which he said "makes sense" because that's where the courthouse is that the prisoners would have to be escorted to anyway. [continues 762 words]
Pitt Meadows council confirmed its earlier order to have a house in Somerset demolished despite a plea from the owner's lawyer at council this week for an extension. Council had earlier decided to order the owner to demolish his rental house, which burned last year due to a grow-op. But Michael Ranspot, counsel for the owner Michael Legge, asked for a 60- to 90-day extension because of an on-going legal battle with the insurer and the desire to rebuild the house. [continues 446 words]
RCMP raided a medical marijuana grow-op on May 27, seizing 1,744 pot plants. The bust occurred in the 12200 block of Skillen Street as the result of a four-month investigation. Police say a resident in the home had a licence from Health Canada to grow pot for medicinal purposes, but the licence was for "a significantly fewer amount of plants." Inspector Derren Lench said he believes this is the first case where local RCMP has seized marijuana from a grow-op where someone has a licence to grow it legally. [continues 269 words]
Editor: Re: Stop pot shop, says MP, TIMES, June 1 "Conservative MP Randy Kamp believes medicinal marijuana users who are getting their pot from a non-profit dispensary that just opened up in Maple Ridge should be charged for breaking the law." Only a Tory would say that sick people should be criminally charged for using their medicine. It is what they call "compassion." He says that "They have a legal mechanism to get it through Health Canada or to designate someone to grow it for them so it's certainly not that they're without options to get it for medical purposes. I think that's the route they should go," said Kamp. [continues 484 words]
Conservative MP Randy Kamp believes medicinal marijuana users who are getting their pot from a non-profit dispensary that just opened up in Maple Ridge should be charged for breaking the law. "They have a legal mechanism to get it through Health Canada or to designate someone to grow it for them so it's certainly not that they're without options to get it for medical purposes. I think that's the route they should go," said Kamp. Kamp pointed out that Health Canada doesn't license compassion clubs or medical marijuana dispensaries to distribute marijuana and doing so is contrary to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. [continues 493 words]
In a remarkable bit of backwards thinking, the B.C. Court of Appeal has put handcuffs on a law enforcement initiative that was reducing the impact of pot grow operations. It started with a case brought by two residents of Surrey who refused to allow safety inspectors to enter their home as long as they insisted on being accompanied by police officers. The inspectors were abiding by provisions of B.C.'s Safety Standards Act that allowed municipal inspectors to demand entry into anyone's home to do an electrical safety inspection if, because of unusual power consumption, they suspected the home was being used to grow pot. [continues 73 words]
Marc Emery is not the easiest person to defend -- in court or on the street. The self-styled Prince of Pot is not always likeable. In interviews he seems a trifle pompous and a little too self-righteous. In fact, sometimes he's every bit as self-righteous in his defense of marijuana as some of his detractors are in their demonization of him and his evil weed. And surely he's just a bit opportunistic. He knew that setting up a mail order business selling cannabis seeds to Americans as well as Canadians was an act that invited police attention -- particularly in the United States, which continues to fight on in the "War on Drugs." It is a war that puts almost as much emphasis on eradicating marijuana distribution as on cocaine and heroin trafficking. It is a war started by Richard Nixon in 1971 and one which continues unsuccessfully to this day. [continues 556 words]
Editor: I truly believe there is a reason the marijuana dispensary ended up here and it has nothing to do with altruism. The owner of the house that is being used lives in Pitt Meadows, as well the president of the society lives in Pitt Meadows, while most of the staff live in Vancouver so there was a reason this society ended up setting up shop in Maple Ridge, and specifically in Haney. I think it can be summed up by a quote from the president of the society when he said: "We are not in one of the best neighbourhoods in Maple Ridge, anyway. You can't make it worse." [continues 166 words]
The Mayor of Pitt Meadows says his municipality will continue with its grow op inspection program despite a recent B.C. Court of Appeal decision that homes can't be inspected without a warrant. Don MacLean said in the last two years there have been two fires in houses that had grow ops in them and the fires could have burned down adjacent houses as well if they hadn't been put out in time. MacLean said protecting public safety is a higher priority than "protecting the rights of criminals." [continues 462 words]
But local Liberal MLA has concerns about shop's message. TAGGS medicinal marijuana dispensary has collected more than 150 signatures on a petition supporting its existence in just a few days, said director Michael Joinson (pictured). The dispensary also now has 35 members. The dispensary opened its doors on May 3 on 224 Street and has been creating headaches for local police and politicians in how to deal with the dispensary, which Joinson said only distributes marijuana to people with Health Canada permission to use it medicinally or to people with a doctor's letter stating it would alleviate medical symptoms. [continues 530 words]
Police won't move in and charge anyone involved with the new medicinal marijuana dispensary operating in Maple Ridge unless they get approval from the federal Department of Justice to do so. That's what Ridge Meadows RCMP Supt. Dave Walsh told Maple Ridge council at a meeting on Monday. "If we were going to consider any enforcement action in regards to this it would be at the direction of both Health Canada as well as the Department of Justice so I guess from our perspective we're still in the information gathering and consultative stage," he said. "The decision would be the Department of Justice's as to whether, given these set of circumstances, they would be willing to prosecute." [continues 840 words]
A new medicinal marijuana dispensary on 224 Street in Maple Ridge already has 18 people signed up as members in the first week of operation. However, Michael Joinson, director of The Always Growing Green Society (TAGGS), which runs the dispensary, is nervous the District of Maple Ridge or the Ridge Meadows RCMP might shut the operation down before it really gets off the ground. The dispensary opened its doors Monday and on Tuesday got a visit from a police officer and Brock McDonald, the director of business licencing, permits and bylaws for the District of Maple Ridge. [continues 647 words]
The opening of the Always Growing Green Society Dispensary on 224 Street is perhaps a lesson in how not to open a controversial project in a community. The folks behind this society, which started selling medical marijuana this week, issued a press release just before opening. This meant media outlets were calling for reaction from local politicians and the police, who hadn't heard of the project in their own community. Mayor Ernie Daykin and the police likely felt blindsided by the issue, which the society members had to know would be controversial. Others, including those members of a coalition trying to clean up this area of town, complained about a lack of public consultation. [continues 140 words]
Editor: I am a concerned member of the public who supports medical marijuana access rights. In keeping with (the community's) request to acquire more information about TAGGS, I would ask you to meet with its directors at your earliest convenience. Please do not hurt the sick and dying in Maple Ridge, please support TAGGS. Angel Flanagan, Nova Scotia [end]
