POT CLINIC POPS UP NEAR FIVE CORNERS

'Compassion Club' Part of Business Plan

Mayor Sharon Gaetz said the city was taken by surprise when a new
medical clinic in Chilliwack opened this week with a focus on medical
marijuana.

Operating out of a Yale Road office near Five Corners, the Be Kind
Medical Clinic opened in Chilliwack this week.

A Craigslist posting states that the clinic will employ medical
doctors, a doctor of chinese medicine, and a pharmacist. The ad says
that the clinic's medical team will meet with prospective patients and
assist those who qualify with obtaining a card that allows them to
access medical marijuana.

The posting also says that the clinic will house a gathering place for
patients and a "compassion club" to allow members to access medical
marijuana.

The clinic's management politely declined a request to comment, citing
a desire to first meet with the RCMP.

Gaetz said representatives for the clinic told city hall that their
enterprise would be a "health care-slash-medicine business." That type
of business is permitted in the zone in question. But the city wasn't
told that the business would be focused on medical marijuana.

"They neglected to mention or tell us anything about marijuana and so
we were rather surprised by the fact that that is their business,"
Gaetz told the Times. "Not annoyed, just surprised."

Gaetz said Wednesday that city officials were checking on the legality
of such a business. She reserved further comment on her own views on
such a business until she knew whether it was permitted by city and
federal laws.

Earlier this week, the federal government announced that it was
seeking public input in regards to proposed changes to Canada's
medical marijuana legislation that would, among other things, prohibit
it from being grown by individuals.

With the Be Kind operators not speaking, it's not known where the
marijuana will be grown.

But if the government does mandate that marijuana be grown
commercially, rather than in homes, as is being proposed, a centrally
located dispensary would likely be the preferred method of delivery.

Indeed, after Mayor Sharon Gaetz asked federal Health Minister Leona
Aglukkaq for a meeting in 2009 to discuss medical marijuana grow
operations, the chair of a Vancouver compassion club told the Times
that they would prefer to see marijuana grown commercially, instead of
by individuals.

"The issue of medical cannabis cultivation in structures designed as
dwellings is one of our major concerns," Vancouver Foresight Society
chair Mike Hansen told the Times via e-mail in October of 2009.