Pubdate: Wed, 01 Aug 2012
Source: Tri-City News (Port Coquitlam, CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Tri-City News
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/3X3xlf9Y
Website: http://www.tricitynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1239
Author: Janis Warren

COQ. POT PROCLAMATION

Some 140 members of a compassion club that opened two months ago in
Maillardville will have to go elsewhere to buy medical marijuana.

This week, Coquitlam city council outlawed the Coquitlam Natural Path
Society (CNPS) from operating its unlicensed dispensary on Brunette
Avenue.

As well, city council unanimously voted to ban medical marijuana
growers from residential areas - unless they are producing small
amounts for themselves.

Now, third-party growers will have to harvest in one of five south
Coquitlam industrial sites, by Highway 1, as selected by city managers.

The move came late Monday after an emotional public hearing that saw
seven speakers oppose the zoning bylaw change and three people
supporting it.

Coun. Linda Reimer said the city had also received a number of letters
and emails from "concerned citizens" wanting pot ops gone.

"Shame. You guys are dinosaurs," shouted Coquitlam's Mark Klokeid,
president of iMedikate Dispensary Society in Vancouver and a CNPS
director, while walking out of council chambers following council's
decision.

Later, CNPS spokesperson Christopher MacLeod told The Tri-City News
he, too, was disappointed with council. He is more than $10,000 out of
pocket after setting up the business that provided specific marijuana
strains to patients with ailments such as cancer, digestion disorders
and arthritis, which he has.

"I'll have to go back to the board members and see what happens next,"
he said with a shrug, noting his clients may be forced to purchase pot
from the street "laced with God knows what."

During the two-hour hearing, MacLeod had pleaded with council to help
him stay within the law for dispensing medical weed - a practice
that's not regulated by Health Canada, unlike third-party growers who
can be licensed under Marijuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR).

That so-called legal grey area for compassion clubs didn't sit well
with Coquitlam councillors who - although sympathetic with MacLeod and
his clients with doctors' notes and MMAR exemptions - repeated
MacLeod's words of calling his trade "civil disobedience."

"There's a veneer of legitimacy but it's very thin," Coun. Terry
O'Neill said. "You can't expect city council to join the march
arm-in-arm. There's no way we can responsibly sanction this even
though we believe the law should be changed."

Coun. Mae Reid said many cities "are between a rock and a hard place":
federal laws allow medical marijuana operations and are slow to act on
dispensaries; as a result, the municipalities' only tool is land-use
control.

As for residential medical marijuana grows, Coun. Craig Hodge said
many homeowners on Burke Mountain, where he lives, have signed
petitions to call for council to prohibit them for fear of safety.

Decreased property values, noxious odours and dangers for emergency
personnel were other reasons for the ban, opponents said at the
hearing, which was witnessed by Coquitlam RCMP.

At Mayor Richard Stewart's suggestion, city council voted to write a
letter to the federal government to lobby for changes on the
regulation and distribution of medical marijuana.
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MAP posted-by: Matt