COPS, DISTRICT CHECK OUT MEDICAL POT SHOP

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.

Joinson said they told him they were going to get more information
before taking any action. "I'm not doing something new here. This
(medicinal marijuana dispensaries) has been happening in Vancouver
for 12 years," said Joinson. "I said I understand you have to do your
job and I have to do my job too because there's a need for what we're doing."

Joinson has a meeting with Maple Ridge Mayor Ernie Daykin next Tuesday as well.

Joinson said he's learned there are 200 people within 30 kilometres
of the new dispensary that are customers of Vancouver medicinal
marijuana dispensaries.

"We've sent out mass e-mails to everybody who is using dispensary
services in Vancouver to send messages to the mayor and let him know
we're not just a couple of people. This is a huge amount of people,"
said Joinson.

The dispensary is selling sativa and indica strains of cannabis buds,
hash, marijuana "budder" and oils, tinctures and baked marijuana
edibles. Joinson said only people with federal government permission
to use medicinal marijuana or people with a doctor's letter stating
medicinal marijuana would alleviate symptoms will be able to buy
products at the dispensary.

McDonald said the RCMP is currently consulting with "a number of"
federal agencies including Health Canada.

"What they're trying to do is get some sort of confirmation from them
whether this activity is lawful and once they hear back from those
federal agencies then obviously the RCMP will be in a better position
to decide what to do," said McDonald.

McDonald said TAGGS, as a non-profit society, isn't necessarily
required to have a business licence.

"We have to take a hard look at the activity. The bylaw sort of
exempts non-profits in some situations from needing a business
licence," he said. "The first order of business is to determine
whether this is a lawful activity, which is an RCMP matter."

McDonald said he's checked out the zoning for the property the
dispensary is in and it's commercial even though there's a house on the site.

"If somebody wanted to open up a...legitimate drug dispensary then
from a land use perspective C-3 would comply," he said.

Under Health Canada regulations people with permission to use
marijuana medicinally can get permission to grow their own marijuana
or designate someone to grow it for them but that person can only
grow for up to two people. Health Canada also obtains marijuana from
a supplier, which people can buy.

Ashley Lemire said no one else is legally allowed to grow or sell
marijuana, including compassion clubs like TAGGS.

"If compassion clubs operate outside of Canadian laws, this is an
enforcement issue and falls under the jurisdiction of law enforcement
agencies. Health Canada works in cooperation with law enforcement
agencies to reduce the illegal production and distribution of
substances related to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act," she
said in an e-mail.

Joinson said it's unfortunate that some of the neighbours of the new
dispensary are upset about the lack of consultation. He said the
non-profit attempted to distribute fliers around the neighbourhood
letting people know about it but he said the people hired to
distribute the fliers didn't actually hand them out and instead he
believes they just threw them in a dumpster.

He said the non-profit didn't want to tell the RCMP or the district
in advance because members feared they'd be shut down before they
could even get started and they wanted some time to sign up members
to prove there's a need for it.

As of April 2, 2010 there were 4,907 people in Canada granted
permission to use marijuana medicinally by Health Canada and 1,045 of
those people lived in B.C.