STOP POT SHOP, SAYS MP

Conservative MP Randy Kamp believes medicinal marijuana users who are
getting their pot from a non-profit dispensary that just opened up in
Maple Ridge should be charged for breaking the law.

"They have a legal mechanism to get it through Health Canada or to
designate someone to grow it for them so it's certainly not that
they're without options to get it for medical purposes. I think that's
the route they should go," said Kamp.

Kamp pointed out that Health Canada doesn't license compassion clubs
or medical marijuana dispensaries to distribute marijuana and doing so
is contrary to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

"I think there does need to be a better coordination between Health
Canada and local authorities, including law enforcement agencies, so
they're aware of who has the legal right to be doing those kind of
things," he said.

"It seems to me the law is pretty clear these organizations are
operating outside the law and my position has always been we have to
enforce the law or change it, not ignore it."

Kamp said he organized a meeting recently between Health Canada and
the District of Maple Ridge to discuss The Always Growing Green
Society's (TAGGS) medicinal marijuana dispensary that opened up in
Maple Ridge in early May.

"I think they heard some things they hadn't really heard as clearly
before in terms of how the program has been abused perhaps or
misused," said Kamp.

Maple Ridge council sent a letter to Kamp asking him to lobby Health
Canada to start verifying that medicinal marijuana users are complying
with federal legislation and regulations.

TAGGS gives out medicinal marijuana to people who have federal
government permission to use it or to people who have a doctor's
letter stating it would help alleviate their medical symptoms.

Under federal government regulations people with permission to use
medicinal marijuana can buy it from the government, they can get a
permit to grow it themselves or they can designate someone to grow it
for them.

However, no one is allowed to grow medicinal marijuana for more than
two Health Canada licence holders and compassion clubs like TAGGS
aren't legally allowed to distribute it.

However, several such clubs have sprung up in B.C. in recent years in
Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna as well as Maple Ridge.

Ridge Meadows RCMP Superintendent Dave Walsh told Maple Ridge council
recently that police wouldn't charge anyone involved in the new
dispensary unless they get approval from the federal Department of
Justice to do so.

Brock McDonald, director of business licencing, permits and bylaws,
has told council TAGGS doesn't require a business licence because it's
operated by a non-profit society.

Council has been wrestling with how to deal with the
dispensary.

A staff report to council noted that the "sudden appearance of a
compassion club dispensing medicinal marijuana to its members from a
house in a residential area of Maple Ridge is causing great concern in
this community."

The report argued lack of enforcement of medicinal marijuana access
regulations by Health Canada "has left local government bearing the
burden of trying to regulate these operations with limited
jurisdictional ability and very few, if any, enforcement
opportunities."

The report noted that police and fire departments have identified
safety issues around marijuana grow-ops including increased risk of
break ins and home invasions, health issues for children living in
houses where marijuana is grown and increased risk of fires, chemical
spills in sewer systems and injuries to growers and their families.