Pubdate: Tue, 30 Apr 2013
Source: Chilliwack Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2013 Chilliwack Times
Contact:  http://www.chilliwacktimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1357
Author: Paul J. Henderson

STRAHL SPEAKS ON GROWING CONCERN

Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon MP Mark Strahl addressed local concerns over 
the growing of medical marijuana last week in Parliament.

Strahl referenced one specific medical marijuana grower in a rural 
area of Chilliwack that was reported on by the Times in February.

"Mr. Speaker, I recently met with a number of families who are 
concerned by a large marijuana grow operation that has sprung up in 
their neighbourhood," Strahl said in the House of Commons on April 
25. "Shockingly, this massive grow op is considered a legal grow 
under the Medical Marihuana Access Program regulations set up by a 
previous Liberal government."

The grow in question is one of hundreds in Chilliwack, one of the 
communities with the most legal marijuana growers in Canada. As of 
February, there were 513 individuals in Chilliwack who hold personal 
use production licences (PUPL) and 77 who hold designated person 
production licences (DPPL). That's a threefold, or a 206 per cent, 
increase in growers in the city in one year.

On one rural road in Chilliwack, neighbours of the suspicious medical 
marijuana grow operation referenced by Strahl have had concerns for years.

The property has an alarmed security fence, a large dog, and fans 
that run 24 hours a day, seven days a week inside outbuildings so 
large they dwarf the neighbouring single family homes.

"I know myself what a small marijuana grow operation looks like," 
said one neighbour on condition of anonymity. "I have no opinion 
about medical marijuana. But this is a commercial operation that is 
supposed to be residential. And it's in the ALR."

Strahl pointed to changes to the program coming in March 2014 that 
will take growing out of residential neighbourhoods.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom