Medical pot grower busted for growing eight times his limit
Posted February 13, 2013 2:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
ABBOTSFORD (NEWS1130) – An Abbotsford man who has a license to grow medical marijuana plants has been growing eight times the amount allowed.
The APD Drug Enforcement Unit and Emergency Response Team went to a home in North West Abbotsford where they found 295 pot plants on the property. Investigators found the man linked to the property had a Health Canada permit to grow 35 plants and seized the extra 260 plants.
Cst. Ian MacDonald with Abbotsford Police says this is a lot more common than you may think and he’s not aware of anyone from Health Canada checking to make sure these people are following the rules.
“And so that raises some questions about the granting of these licenses and more specifically some of the auditing and whether the proper checks are being done to make sure people are adhering to these licenses,” says MacDonald.
MacDonald says in cases where police have inspected a grow op later determined to be authorized by Health Canada, most of the time they’ve found the person who holds the license is growing way more than the authorized amount.
Stephane Shank with Health Canada agrees that the current program is not working, “underlining the fact that these were concern that were raised from law enforcement officials, fire departments and mayors across the country.
Changes were proposed in December to make production more secure and move some responsibility away from Health Canada.
