PITT MEADOWS CONSIDERS BAN ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA PLANTS

Officials claim legal growing operations expose residents to a higher
risk of fires

Pitt Meadows is considering a change to zoning bylaws that would ban
medical marijuana production in the municipality.

Individuals who hold the proper permit from Heath Canada can grow
marijuana for medical consumption in Pitt Meadows and across Canada.

Patients can obtain a permit from Health Canada allowing them to
possess marijuana to alleviate symptoms associated with cancer,
multiple sclerosis, HIV/AIDS, severe arthritis and spinal cord
injuries and disease.

A separate permit, also issued by Health Canada, is required to grow
the drug.

A grower's permit can be held by the patient or a person selected by
the patient to provide the drug.

Although the federal government allows production of medical
marijuana, advocates of medical marijuana have been in a tug of war
with municipalities that claim production of the drug poses a
significant safety hazard for residents.

Medical marijuana advocates are calling the proposed zoning amendment
by Pitt Meadows banning legal marijuana production in the municipality
immoral and reprehensible.

"If I sound upset, it's because I am," said Kirk Tousaw, executive
director of the Beyond Prohibition Foundation.

Tousaw is also a lawyer who has represented a number of compassion
clubs -- establishments where patients can purchase marijuana -- and
marijuana permit-holders in his practice.

The Pitt Meadows bylaw amendment would ban all marijuana production,
including production by individuals holding permits from Health Canada
allowing them to grow and harvest the plant for medicinal purposes.
The proposed amendment makes no mention of possible penalties.

Pitt Meadows officials contend they are trying to do what they can to
protect their residents from fire danger and drug trafficking.

Calling the permitted marijuana production sites, "fires waiting to
happen," Mayor Don MacLean said many "so-called legal grow ops are not
operating within the spirit of the law."

MacLean pointed to a bust at a permitted production facility in Maple
Ridge. The facility had exceeded the number of plants allowed by their
permit by more than 1,500 plants.

"Sounds like an excuse to me," Tousaw said about the mayor's
concerns.

If permit holders who exceed the number of plants they are allowed are
subject to law enforcement, "it has nothing to do with health or
safety," he said.

The Pitt Meadows Fire Department has not had to respond to a fire at a
permitted marijuana production facility so far, according to fire
chief Don Jolley.

"We are, however, concerned that the existence of permitted operations
are not subject to rigorous inspections for fire and building code and
land-use compliance and as such may have very similar hazards related
to life safety and fire as illegal operations," he said in an e-mail
to The Sun.

The department has responded to multiple fires at illegal marijuana
production sites, including two large fires in the past year,
according to Jolley.

Fire concerns could be easily dealt with if municipalities would work
with permit-holders instead of subjecting them to further
stigmatization, Tousaw said.

Across the Fraser River from Pitt Meadows, the City of Surrey lost a
court battle earlier this year over whether the city could use
fire-safety inspections to target and search suspected illegal growing
operations.

MacLean also wants the city and the local RCMP to be told the location
of licensed marijuana production facilities within the
municipality.

Health Canada only provides information on growers to police engaged
in an investigation so police may determine if a suspected growing
operation is a permitted production facility.

Providing permit-holder information to law enforcement as a
matter-of-course would be a bad idea, said Tousaw, adding that the
"circus and sideshow" caused by the RCMP showing up at a permitted
production facility would draw the attention of criminals, putting
law-biding permit-holders at risk.

"The ill have privacy rights, they don't lose their privacy rights
because they got ill," he added.

The amendment is to be considered by Pitt Meadows council Tuesday at 7
p.m.