POT LICENCE PREVENTS CHARGES

A COUPLE facing charges of running a grow-op in their home will not
see additional charges from a second police raid on their house.

Larry Tallon and his wife Lynda had police break down their door in
March 2008 after officers believed they were continuing to operate a
grow-op that police had found on their first raid on the Halliwell
home in September 2007.

However, in March, the Tallons produced a medical marijuana licence,
allowing them to grow a certain number of plants, keep a specified
amount of cultivated marijuana on hand and take a certain amount with
them if they travelled, for Tallon's undisclosed medical condition.

Police verified the licence was real and left the house.

Late last week, police confirmed that charges will not be forwarded to
prosecutors for the March raid on Tallon's house.

"No charges will be forwarded on the Tallon file you mention," said
Terrace RCMP spokesperson Const. Cindy Nunes.

"Yes a valid medical licence was produced, a file was generated and it
has been concluded."

After the March raid last year, then-Const. Clint Lange, who was with
the detachment's drug squad at time of the raids, said police were
wondering how the Tallons got the medical marijuana licence and
whether the Tallons had informed the government about the trafficking
charges against them when they applied for the licence.

Tallon later said he didn't tell the government about the charges
against him when applying for the licence because the application form
didn't ask that question.

His lawyer, Donald Skogstad, a drug lawyer from Kamloops, believed his
clients received their medical marijuana licence about a month before
the second police raid.

Tallon could not be reached for comment.