Pubdate: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 Source: Daily Courier, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2011 The Okanagan Valley Group of Newspapers Contact: http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/includes/email_forms/letters_to_editor.php Website: http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/531 Author: Don Plant 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.