Pubdate: Tue, 11 Feb 2014
Source: Guardian, The (CN PI)
Copyright: 2014 The Guardian, Charlottetown Guardian Group Incorporated
Contact:  http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/174
Author: Dave Stewart

CITY PAVES WAY FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA FACILITY

Council agrees to amend zoning and development bylaw

City council in Charlottetown has paved the way for the province's
first medical marijuana production facility.

By a vote of 8-2 at Monday night's regular public monthly meeting,
council has agreed to amend the city's zoning and development bylaw by
adding the definition for medical marijuana production facility.

Couns. Mitchell Tweel and Danny Redmond were the two
naysayers.

Council is also restricting where such a facility can be built. Those
areas include the West Royalty Industrial Park, some light industrial
areas located north of the city's bypass highway and the bio-commons
park, although the city would likely have to amend its development
agreement with the latter before going ahead.

The city's hand has essentially been forced. Under new federal
legislation, large indoor marijuana farms certified by the RCMP and
health inspectors, will be allowed to produce, package and distribute
a range of standardized weed, all of it sold for whatever price the
market will bear.

Coun. Rob Lantz, chairman of planning, said had council not voted in
favour of the resolution such a production facility would have been
allowed, by federal law, to build anywhere.

"These are legal, federally regulated facilities. We cannot prohibit
them so what council did tonight was restrict them to some very small
areas of the city," Lantz said.

"A vote against this resolution is essentially a vote for the status
quo which is to keep these unregulated which means they could be built
essentially anywhere so council did the responsible thing,
thankfully."

Tweel said no one at a recent public meeting on the issue spoke in
favour of a medical marijuana facility.

"Three speakers got up to the podium and not one spoke in favour so
the question is why the urgency? Why the rush?" Tweel said. "Have we
heard from the P. E. I. Medical Society? Have we heard from the RCMP?
Have we heard from the Charlottetown police department? I haven't
heard anyone speak in favour."

Tweel dismisses federal legislation talk, pointing to government's
moves to eliminate door-to-door postal delivery, cutting Veterans
Affairs Canada jobs and closing district offices as proof it doesn't
always make good decisions. Lantz said there is nothing the city can
do to block them.

"I am advised that we cannot legally prohibit a legal facility of any
kind, no more than we can prohibit dry cleaners from being in the
city. We have the ability and probably the obligation, I would say, to
regulate where they could go."

Lantz anticipates there is a developer that will be coming to the city
with an application to build one.

"There is somebody coming to us with an application. We will see it
and we'll have to deal with it. in the absence of what we did here
tonight we would have no control over where it would go."

Lantz said the issue was about zoning and not about debating the
merits of marijuana use.

"I think some people took advantage of the subject matter of what
happens at these facilities and tried to turn it into something it's
not."

Lantz said other municipalities around the region are doing the same
thing Charlottetown did and regulating where they can go. There's only
a handful operating right now in Canada but that is going to change.

"I prefer this approach . . . and I think law enforcement officials
would tell you the same thing. The product from these facilities is
more likely to get in the hands and stay in the hands of the people
who legitimately need it.

"I think there have been concerns in the past, and I've heard this
rationale for the federal government's decision to go this way . . .
the licensing system they used before for individuals, allowing them
to grow it in their own homes, some of this stuff was finding its way
onto the black market so if the proliferation of marijuana is a
concern then I think that the federal government is probably doing the
right thing by consolidating the production and distribution into
these larger facilities that are really tightly regulated."

The issue needs final approval from the province, a process likely to
take two to four weeks.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D