Medicinal Pot Production

SECHELT EXPLORES MARIJUANA ZONES

An application to renovate a building for medicinal pot production in
Sechelt prompted councillors to look at a potential zoning bylaw at
the Jan. 4 committee of the whole meeting.

"Right now it's not an allowed use in the zoning bylaw, so we have
been checking into options to make that work and also did some
research about the whole medical marijuana theme," acting director
of development services Andre Boel said.

He explained that although it is legal to grow medicinal marijuana in
a home with a licence, growing pot in residential neighbourhoods can
create unsafe situations.

While medicinal growers of the drug must register with provincial
authorities, local law enforcement officers and first responders are
not given the information due to privacy concerns.

Sechelt Fire Chief Bill Higgs was at the Jan. 4 meeting and said the
improper wiring that is done in many of the legal grow ops is
extremely dangerous to firefighters.

"The fire service on the Coast is united in the suggestion that we
would like to see some political direction to get as much of this out
of people's homes as possible, because again when we show up to it,
we're unaware of what's going on and people are not forthcoming with
the information," Higgs said.

Councillors had many questions about the proposed zoning bylaw
brought forward by staff, which calls for a specific land use zoning
bylaw to allow growing only in industrial and agricultural zones.

Due to the wide array of questions and the relatively new subject
material, councillors recommended sending the issue to an information
meeting before moving any further.