LOBBYING PREMATURE

Editor, The Gazette:

At the Oct. 19 meeting council, Coun. Joy Davies elaborated on her
meeting with the Honourable Bill Bennett, B.C. Minister of Community &
Rural Development, and John Slater, MLA, while at the Union of British
Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) conference in September. Based on
information she had provided the minister, he apparently supports the
concept of provincial governments controlling access to medical
marijuana, taking over that role from the federal government. As
council has not yet received Coun. Davies' medical marijuana task
force report, nor approved any recommendations that may be contained
therein, was Coun. Davies' lobbying of the minister on behalf of the
citizens of Grand Forks somewhat premature?

At the council meeting, with the urging of Councillors Cher Wyers and
Christine Thompson, Mayor Brian Taylor reluctantly agreed to hold a
public meeting on medical marijuana after council receives the task
force report in January 2010. Hopefully, such a meeting will occur
before council approves any recommendations contained in that report.
Thank you Mayor Taylor and Councillors Wyers and Thompson for
acknowledging the public's right to be heard on this controversial
topic. I look forward to the public meeting.

Once again, the difficulties endured by patients seeking a licence for
use of medical marijuana was decried. If Coun. Davies and her task
force members don't like the current process, she as a private
citizen, and they, as a group of concerned citizens, have every right
to communicate their concerns and recommendations directly to the
federal Minister of Health. This course of action would eliminate the
probability of their recommendations being altered beyond recognition
by various levels of government prior to reaching the federal Minister
of Health. It would also remove the topic of medical marijuana from
our council, thus calming the troubled waters of this city.

Sylvia Treptow

Grand Forks