MAYOR APPLAUDS PROPOSED CHANGES TO MEDICAL POT LAW

Chilliwack's mayor is giving the thumbs up to proposed changes to laws
that govern medical marijuana growers.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced Friday that the government
will hold public consultations into a number of proposed changes to
the laws.

Among the changes, Health Canada is proposing to eliminate individual
and private growers. Aglukkaq said the government hopes the changes
will "reduce the risk of abuse . . . while significantly improving the
way program participants access marijuana for medical purposes." Gaetz
has been outspoken about what she believes is the risk posed by
medical marijuana growers in Chilliwack. Gaetz has said that the city
may be home to hundreds of private marijuana grow ops, that those
operations may pose structural risks to the buildings they inhabit,
and that it is often impossible to ensure that growers are abiding by
the terms of their licences.

"Oftentimes people are not growing for their own use and they don't
have a licence to grow for more [people] but they are," Gaetz told the
Times on Friday. She said that suspicion seems to be borne out by a
recent pot bust.

Earlier this month, five people were arrested after police said they
found many times the permitted number of pot plants at a Cultus Lake
home whose owners possessed a medical marijuana licence.

Citing concern about electricity use, water issues, disposal of
fertilizers, fire danger and theft, council directed staff in March to
investigate whether it could ask strata councils to ban medical
marijuana growers.

And 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. Gaetz was pleased to see the
government address the concerns and take the issue out of the hands of
cities and towns.

"I think this is fantastic," she said. "This is a far superior
solution, I believe, marijuana will be grown in the proper places and
it should serve the people it's meant to serve." Medical marijuana
advocates have argued limiting access to medical pot is
unconstitutional and the role of the federal government should also
remove any potential legal headaches for municipalities trying to act
on concerns about medical marijuana.

"This way we won't ever have to worry that we've got a legitimate user
in our sights," said Gaetz.

The new rules would seem destined to concentrate the production of
marijuana into the hands of licensed businesses.

That, of course, raises the possibility that an agricultural community
like Chilliwack could see legitimate marijuana harvesting businesses
try to set up shop.

"I'm sure there'll be entrepreneur who will want to grow and the
discussion next is how can we do that in a way that is safe as well,"
said Gaetz, "because obviously any kind of large-scale operation--and
small-scale operation--has security threats, so that's something we'll
talk about with Health Canada."