POT POLICY GOES UP IN SMOKE

The Central Okanagan's top cop has removed a road block that prevented
people from applying to grow marijuana legally in West Kelowna.

Until Wednesday, the policy at the RCMP's West Kelowna detachment was
to deny requests for criminal record checks that prospective growers
of medical marijuana need to get a licence from Health Canada. When
Supt. Bill McKinnon learned about it, he directed officers to resume
issuing the record-check forms.

"They weren't doing it. They are now," McKinnon said Wednesday.
"Someone identified the flaw and they're making improvements."

Don Schultz owns Greenline Academy, a business that helps patients and
growers comply with medical-marijuana laws. He applied for the
criminal record-check form at the West Kelowna detachment on Monday. A
retired officer told him the detachment has a policy that forbids
police from handing out the forms.

"We've been instructed that for medical marijuana, we are not going to
give any medical marijuana checks to anybody until (Health Canada)
straightens a few things out," Larry Hamilton told Schultz on Monday.
"We want to keep things tightened up a little bit."

People who want to grow pot legally need a $40 criminal record check
before they can apply for a grower's licence. If police refuse to
grant one, they're denying applicants the right to grow pot for
patients who need it, Schultz said.

"I call it discrimination. They hand out applications to people who
drive transport trucks, but they deny the option for patients to have
someone grow marijuana for them."

Hamilton suggested the District of West Kelowna directed the policy to
withhold the applications. Mayor Doug Findlater said his council has
never discussed it.

Still, West Kelowna council plans to write federal Health Minister
Leona Aglukkaq to complain about the legislation. Health Canada
doesn't disclose where legal grow-ops are located or what shape the
houses are in.

"They may have all of the same building-code issues that an illegal
(house) does with wiring and mold because Health Canada just issues
the licences," Findlater said.

"We ask the minister to review the legislation so we can avoid
problems related to police not knowing where the legal grow-ops are."

RCMP can waste countless hours investigating a suspected grow-op only
to learn at the last minute it's licensed by Health Canada for medical
marijuana users.

"We don't know where they are," said McKinnon. "Our last step before
we kick in the door is checking with Health Canada to see whether it's
a legal grow. They could be a fire hazard. We don't know if they're
properly wired."

Too few inspectors are available to check whether a grow-op is safe,
McKinnon said. And police complain that some licensed growers abuse
the rules because there's so little scrutiny.

RCMP busted a property licensed for growing medical marijuana in Maple
Ridge last month. Officers found nearly 1,490 plants - almost seven
times the legal allotment - as well as a helicopter, two pickup
trucks, and three mobile marijuana grow labs.

Investigators suspect the pot was being sold illegally in the Lower
Mainland.

Schultz said he's happy RCMP have lifted the ban on record-check
forms, but agrees more transparency in B.C. would help his industry.