POLICE LET LEGAL POT GROW ON

Prince George RCMP are showing signs of growing up about legal
grow-ops, said a medical marijuana activist.

Last week local Mounties executed a search warrant on an Alward Street
home and found it to be loaded in marijuana plants, some packaged for
sale and some still growing. They also found a makeshift doorway from
that residence through the wall into the adjoining home.

The second home was also the site of live marijuana plants but the
federal government had issued a license for a certain number of
cannabis plants to legally be cultivated there -- but allegedly not as
many as police found.

Police seized all the marijuana in the home without a license. Police
also seized all the marijuana from the licensed property over and
above the terms of the license. They left the licensed amount still
growing and in the care of those named by the license.

It has not been disclosed if those facing charges are the same as
those who were given permission by Health Canada to grow medical marijuana.

"I think that what the police did in that situation is refreshing to
hear," said Chad Clelland, director of online and community relations
for medicalmarijuana.ca, an online community of doctors, patients and
growers gathered around the use of marijuana for its medical purposes.

"At the end of the day, there is a patient involved in this operation
who is relying on that medication," Clelland said. "If those
designated growers are charged, their license won't be renewed next
year, so this is a great scenario that those patients will not lose
their medicine all of a sudden. If that supplier is lost to them, if
they were trying to overstep the rules of their license, then those
patients can make new arrangements for their prescriptions. If the
police had seized all of that marijuana, it would have been instantly
lost to a patient with no other short-term option."

Mounties were aware before they entered the second home that it was
allowed to grow at least some of the marijuana inside. Prince George
RCMP spokesman Gary Godwin said this is checked out in advance with
Health Canada, as part of acquiring all search warrants.

"We had information on the property that was not registered for the
legal growing of marijuana. We determined with Health Canada that the
address in question was not licensed," Godwin said.

"Once we went in, we found the marijuana and also the doorway to the
side. We then checked with Health Canada again and indeed that new
address in question was a legal address for a Health Canada license,
but the allegation then was that it was not compliant with the terms
of the license."

Clelland said the situation was "unfortunate to hear.

"It definitely gives a bad reputation to people who are operating
within the parameters of their license," he said.

"Some people are going to be inclined to get away with what they can,
and the people that we know understand that they must conform to their
license the same as the stipulations on your drivers license. You have
to follow it. The rules of each license are very clear, they are easy
to understand. It is a controlled substance, and this is part of the
federal control of that."

Godwin said it was the RCMP's on-site determination that the holder of
the license was authorized to possess a certain amount of live
marijuana, so police had no right to take that prescribed amount, no
matter what other plants were involved. If laws were broken, they
would be dealt with.