FIRE CHIEFS APPLAUD NEW POT RULES

Ottawa Planning to Tighten Laws for Medical Growers

The Fire Chiefs Association of B.C. applauded Friday changes announced
by Health Canada related to the production of medical marijuana.

"Communities will be safer a result, simple as that," said association
president Len Garis. "I congratulate Minister [Leona] Aglukkaq for
bringing this forward and for allowing a consultation process to take
place in the meantime, with community stakeholders, to help us work to
solve our immediate concerns."

Aglukkaq announced Friday that the federal government will be changing
laws for medical marijuana growers

The government is beginning the process immediately by launching
public consultations into a list of proposed changes the department
has prepared.

Aglukkaq said government is hoping the changes will "reduce the risk
of abuse . . . while significantly improving the way program
participants access marijuana for medical purposes."

Among other changes, the move would eliminate individual and private
growers. Under the current system, eligible people apply to Health
Canada, which then issues the licence. People in the dispensing
community who have been hearing about the impending change say it's
unconstitutional, and removes the rights of medical cannabis patients
to produce their own cannabis.

Health Canada's proposal is based on recent complaints from mayors and
councillors across the country who say the current system poses
dangers when growers don't follow local electrical, health and safety
bylaws.

At the Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference earlier this
month, delegates approved a resolution to ask that Health Canada issue
licences only to growers who have already received a licence from
their respective municipality.

In March, the mayors of two towns in southern British Columbia wrote
to Aglukkaq, saying too many licences were floating around, making it
impossible for municipalities to know who is licensed and whether
those growers are operating safely.

The mayors of Langley and the Township of Langley also wrote that they
knew "based on actual cases, that there is significant misuse of many
licences and the volume of product produced often exceeds an
individual's personal requirement."

Late last month, RCMP drug investigators in B.C. arrested three men
and seized a helicopter after raiding a Maple Ridge property growing
almost seven times more pot than its two medical marijuana licences
permitted.