NO MEDICAL MARIJUANA PILOT PROJECT

Editor:

The June 29 edition of The Gazette contained an article about the RDKB
approving, in principle, to support a medical marijuana pilot project
as presented by the Grand Forks Compassionate Society (GFCS). Details
were not available to the public.

Those details are now available on the city's website under council
agenda package for the Aug. 15 meeting which includes the minutes of
the June 23 meeting of the RDKB.

I attended council meeting on Aug. 15, attempting to provide
additional information relevant to the medical marijuana pilot project
and was cut off by the mayor.

Following is some of the information he does not want people of Grand
Forks to know:

In Proposed Improvements to Health Canada's Marihuana Medical Access
Program (MMAP) documentation, it is very clear Health Canada has no
intention of relinquishing control over the production and
distribution of medical marijuana.

They will be proceeding directly to commercial producers, bypassing
the perceived need for a pilot project and commercial producers will
be restricted from establishing operations in residential areas.

The director, office of controlled substances, Health Canada states:
"...Health Canada does not license organizations such as compassion
clubs or dispensaries to possess, produce or distribute marihuana for
medical purposes."

The B.C. provincial government, in its response to a September 2010
resolution of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, clearly states it
"...has neither the necessary expertise nor the infrastructure to
license individuals who apply to possess marihuana or to monitor its
production, cultivation quality and distribution."

Under these conditions, we may hope the federal and provincial
governments will deny GFCS's pilot project.

It is offensive that GFCS (Joy Davies is chairperson), assisted by
RDKB, even suggest foisting this sort of project onto Grand Forks that
citizens have been very vocally opposed to since early-2009 when this
hidden agenda was revealed.

I will be taking this into consideration when voting in the November
2011 municipal election.

Sylvia Treptow

Grand Forks