NANAIMO RCMP SAY MEDICINAL POT GROWER DID NOT HAVE LICENCE FOR SPECIFIC
PROPERTY

Cedar's David Hodgkinson will head to court on March 15 to face
trafficking and cultivations charges after his medicinal marijuana
grow-op was raided by police last week.

Nanaimo RCMP spokesman Gary O'Brien said Hodgkinson's licence from
Health Canada to grow medical pot expired in August and he was well in
excess of the number of plants he was allowed to grow under the
licence. Hodgkinson is suspected of illegally selling pot and never
had a licence to grow in the rented home that he has lived in for much
of the past year.

O'Brien said police had visited Hodgkinson's home, in which he was
illegally residing after his landlord began eviction proceedings due
to his pot operation, 20 times since July of 2009, responding to a
"variety of complaints."

Hodgkinson denies the charges, claiming he has done nothing illegal
and pointed his finger at Health Canada for not processing his licence
renewal application on time, as well as his application to move his
operation to the new location.

"This property was well-known to us and was quickly becoming a
nuisance to not only the police but the surrounding community,"
O'Brien said Thursday.

Hodgkinson said his licence expired despite the fact that he applied
for its renewal eight weeks before its expiry date.

Health Canada has acknowledged that, due to a spike in applications,
it is behind in issuing renewal licences for medicinal pot operations

Hodgkinson was licensed to grow up to 49 pot plants for personal
medical use, and a friend who also has an expired licence to grow up
to 49 medicinal pot plants was sharing space and equipment with
Hodgkinson at his home.

Police say that 140 plants in three grow rooms were found during last
Friday's raid.

Hodgkinson said that he was in the middle of a harvest and was
preparing a new crop when he was raided and that the surplus 42 plants
were clones that were being prepared to plant.

He said that he doesn't sell any of his marijuana, which is strictly
meant for personal use for those with medical problems under Health
Canada guidelines, but acknowledged that friends do drop by his house
"at all hours of the night."

"I'm a bit of night owl, but there wasn't anything illegal going on
here,' Hodgkinson said. "I've already had two lawyers contact me on
this and both said they don't believe the Crown will proceed with the
charges.

"There are hundreds of people all across Canada in my situation as a
result of Health Canada not processing renewal applications on time."

Lucy Chernishov, Hodgkinson's landlord, said she has been trying to
evict her tenant since he moved in last July when she became aware he
intended to use her house to grow pot.

"I told him to go do it in someone else's house and I've been trying
to get him out ever since, but there is such a long legal process to
successfully evict someone from a property and I just don't have the
money to move it forward," she said.