VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – A couple of medical marijuana grow ops in the Lower Mainland have been shut down in less than a week for producing way more pot plants than their licences allowed.
The homes are located in Abbotsford and Port Coquitlam, but Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender says it’s a problem all over the Lower Mainland.
“We have got to stop this silliness,” says Fassbender.
“The travesty of it now is we have people who are taking full advantage of it and doing illegal operations. The problem is we don’t even know where the licences are, so there are no inspections and our police departments and our fire departments have no idea where they are. That is so silly.”
The federal government is bringing in a new law in March of next year that will ban people from growing medical marijuana in their own homes.
Police, fire departments, and several mayors from the Lower Mainland applaud the move, but licenced growers fear it will cause marijuana prices to skyrocket.
“What this is going to do is leave a lot of ill and suffering Canadians without much needed medication,” argues Mik Mann, who has a licence for a small grow operation in the basement of his home in Port Alberni.
“The very reason the government brought these changes on was for safety, but the simplest thing to make things safe would be for the government to ask me for an updated electrical inspection each year when I renew my permit. As far as people abusing the system goes, we have something in place for that already. They’re called the police.”
Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis acknowledges an electrical inspection would help address some of the fire risks grow ops can pose, but says that’s only part of the problem.
“That’s one of the safety issues, and that individual’s comments are well received, but there are also alterations that take place to the home,” he says. “When the grow operation has ceased, there still needs to be some kind assessment that is done to ensure the building is not contaminated with mold, herbicides and pesticides.”
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts agrees that medical marijuana shouldn’t be grown in residential areas.
“With the lack of regulations and no input from the city, we’ve seen grow-ops spring up in neighbourhoods. There’s no ventilation, there’s no fire protection, and it’s a safety issue for sure,” she tells News1130.
“With Health Canada finally coming forward with some changes, we are very happy. However, because there weren’t any in place, we’ve had to deal with some significant issues in the city,” she adds.
BC saw a huge spike in licences issued by Health Canada last year.
On December 31, 2012 there were roughly 9,300 people who were licenced to possess pot in the province. That number jumped to 13,000 by the end of the year.
The number of licences to grow pot also shot up, from about 3,000 to 4,900, over the same period.
Mann believes if people are banned from growing medical marijuana in their homes legally, they’ll be forced to set up illegal grow ops. “For me, personally, it will come back to doing it the old-fashioned way when we used to go out to the bush and grow it outdoors.”
The federal government is accepting feedback on what can be done to improve Canada’s rules on medical marijuana until the end of February.
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So two growers have over their plant count, how many times do we as humans drive a little faster than the speed limit?
This does not mean all the drivers speed thus to blame the majority for the actions of the minority is known as blanket policy. For me this conforms to bad policy that holds no stats to suggest all legal cultivators are speeding (growing over their plant count)
Policy written while under the confines of prohibition appear keep being written sideways till a judge hears the policy and enacts the law.
Jason Wilcox
MMAR Coalition against Repeal
1. The fact that Health Canada has NEVER done inspections of any authorized medical grows is their negligence and the patients are made to suffer for it with these new regulations. The Bylaw dept should have been required to inspect for safety and notified police NOT to bust them after a successful inspection for electrical and moisture/mould issues. SIMPLE. Annual reinspection would be all that is required after that.
2. So, are we now saying that NOBODY should be allowed to have houseplants or grow herbs or a few vegetables in their homes? Cannabis is no different. It is EDIBLE, it is an HERB, and IT IS MEDICINE.
3. Sick people will certainly not want to cause ANY health concerns to be created by their MEDICAL grow, in the home they live in.
4. The new regulations removing the ability of patients to grow their own at minimal cost, including the therapeutic act of garden tending, will cause them to lose the ability to afford their much needed medicine. 1 patient I know, it costs her $200 to grow outdoors for the entire year’s supply of medicine. But based on the ‘new’ price scheme that FORCES patients to purchase medication would cost her $26,000 year. Who is going to pay for it now? Another, that has a large prescription, would cost her over $100,000. I ask, WHO will pay for that now, when most patients are genuinely sick, and as a result are on some form of limited income. Cannabis is NOT currently covered under any drug plan. Is the gov’t going to now offer coverage? At the taxpayers expense? Think about that.
I agree that pot growers should be licensed to grow in zoned areas such as industrial or agricultural areas. They should be given the same rights as any other business such as municipal/police/fire and security/alarm services. Our government needs to legalize the business of growing this just like our beer/wine industries. Sure people can try and make their own beer/wine but the best and cheapest stuff is mass produced in zoned areas and bought in stores. Same should happen here.
There should be no restriction on the amount of plants they can grow though. Do they force wine makers to only grow so many vines?…No its ludicrous. As long as they comply with fire and safety laws like sprinkler systems and WCB they should be able to grow as many as their business can support. Time to end the prohibition of pot and all these silly little gangsters. Bring on the pot businessmen/women.
imagine that, they were growing “way more plants” than they were allowed – who tolerates this madness?
It’s too tempting to legally grow your own pot and then to have the opportunity to sell some of the ‘leftover’ product… which will buy you that new Escalade and the trip to the Bahamas….
Trip for growing your own cannabis for medicinal purposes?
Have you grown before for solely personal use?
No need for selling your product or having mass grows unless supplying which has been the case or compassion clubs would not riddle Vancouver.
Why not look at a reasonable cap on plant counts for urban areas and commercial growers belong in a commercial district?
Jason Wilcox
MMAR Coalition against Repeal
The two recently busted grow-ops found to be exceeding their limits demonstrate that a license to grow provides zero protection when one cheats, so what’s the problem?
funny thing is most med growers i know dont sell their extra they share it only the real criminals are in it for the money and they wont be stopped with the new rules
on the other hand they will get busier since no patient can afford the proposed prices of $8.80 and no discount for buying a oz or more like on the street
How are cigarettes still legal and pot isn’t? Cigarettes have known cancer-causing carcinogens (hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, formaldehyde, benzene are highly toxic). Doesn’t take a chemistry degree to read a materials safety data sheet, it’s in plain english. For example formaldehyde it reads “Severe over-exposure can result in death”. Marijuana for the most part do not have these additives. I’m not a smoker in the least but I rather have marijuana smoke in my face than cigarette smoke from smell alone. Guess the taxes cigarette companies pay the government bills.
if govt regulated it and taxed it, then they would be getting part of the profits. They could also regulate who grows it, etc. Better the govt than the hells angels or the other criminal elements that current run it. who is to say that the criminals are not the majority who already have these permits? They are already a step ahead in ensuring the growth of their industry. stupid govt = smart criminals
read the article.. do some research.. puff less.. its killing your brain cells.
Govt is licensing commercial growers, they are infact subsidizing the growers to keep the costs down.. pot heads are complaining it’ll cost too much money..
So before they even tax the hell out of it, your kind is whining.. silly pothead..
Cannabis has been proven through scientific studies, to IMPROVE brain function, it kills cancer cells without harming healthy cells. I guess you still believe all the propaganda and lies that are not scientific fact.
The gov’t has not subsidized anything for Medical Cannabis in any way. The 1 company they had growing it to sell to patients, was priced at 1500% over cost and it was subjected to RADIATION to kill any mould since they grew it in an underground mine in Flin Flon, Sask.
In changing the scheme for Medical Cannabis to only allowing big commercial grows, the costs will all be passed on to the sick and financially handicapped patients, with no coverage under any drug plan. Growing it themselves, was the only way most could afford it. Now, they will not be able to. Who will pay this increased cost now? Taxpayers? Think about it.
Lol.. right…
http://images.ctv.ca/ctvlocal/ottawa/tl/pdf/Crean_Article.pdf
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080213160851.htm
http://www.who.int/substance_abuse/facts/cannabis/en/
Acute health effects of cannabis use
The acute effects of cannabis use has been recognized for many years, and recent studies have confirmed and extended earlier findings. These may be summarized as follows:
Cannabis impairs cognitive development (capabilities of learning), including associative processes; free recall of previously learned items is often impaired when cannabi is used both during learning and recall periods;
Cannabis impairs psychomotor performance in a wide variety of tasks, such as motor coordination, divided attention, and operative tasks of many types; human performance on complex machinery can be impaired for as long as 24 hours after smoking as little as 20 mg of THC in cannabis; there is an increased risk of motor vehicle accidents among persons who drive when intoxicated by cannabis.
the real story is there al least 400000 patients but only 25000 got a card because doctors are against it . once this is all straightened out the price will go down! Or, it will be legal ,than the cons and health Canada can go pound sand for obstructing sick people from getting medicine insulting schmuks like a miss can too!! just sayin have nice day
I know people that grow it in their own homes. They need permits, and inspections, and even have to let Hydro know. Most people don’t want to grow too much because of the costs of growing it anyway. I’d much rather legalize it instead of banning it and causing way more costs in policing and hazards caused by growing it illegally.
Enough is enough. Just legalize the stuff already! Everybody should be able to buy it from the liquor stores (it shouldn’t be readily available like cigarettes, mind you cigarettes should only be sold in liquor stores, too) and it least it makes it a little easier to control who’s buying it, i.e. not underage kids.