KELOWNA COUNCIL TO DISCUSS CLINICAL GROW-OPS

Violence and gang activity around the pot-growing business can only be
eliminated by legalizing the drug, advocates for the medicinal use of
marijuana say.

Laws prohibiting marijuana's widespread production set the stage for
criminals to control its cultivation and distribution, according to a
Kelowna group that represents people who are permitted to smoke pot.

"Prohibition is the largest and most harmful failed public policy in
history," the Be Kind Okanagan Growers and Compassion Club say.

"If we are truly concerned about the health and well-being of our
citizens, if we want to protect them, then we should be willing to
address the topic of legalization, because the costs of prohibition to
all of us are astronomically high," the club says.

On Monday, Kelowna city council will consider whether to join a call
from other B.C. municipalities for the federal government to change
the way marijuana is provided to those who have a medicinal and legal
dispensation to use it.

Currently, licence-holders can grow marijuana in their homes for their
own use, and for one other licence-holder. But some civic politicians
say this is a less-than-ideal system, since larger quantities may be
produced for illegal sale to others, making the homes an attractive
target for criminals.

"We know, based on actual cases, that there is a significant misuse of
many of the licences and the volume of product produced often exceeds
an individual's personal requirement," the mayors of Langley and
Chilliwack write in an open letter to all their provincial
counterparts. "The size of the grows and number of plants is out of
control and can result in potential home invasions, and other related
criminal activity," the mayors say.

To deal with the situation, the mayors suggest Ottawa should cancel
all existing medicinal marijuana licences. In the future, they say,
people who have legal permission to smoke pot should have to obtain
government-produced quantities of the drug through pharmacies.

"As this is the practice for other controlled substances such as
methadone, we do not see why this cannot be done for medicinal
marijuana," the mayor say.

Kelowna council originally considered the matter last Monday, but
deferred making any decision until gathering more information.

Be Kind has now submitted a four-page letter to City Hall, strongly
denouncing the idea of cancelling exist medicinal marijuana licences,
and advocating instead for legalization of pot.

The group says Health Canada once considered using pharmacies to
distribute marijuana to medicinal users, but decided it would be
impractical. And they say government-grown pot is of poor quality and
usually snubbed by medicinal users.