Pubdate: Thu, 13 Feb 2014
Source: Langley Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Langley Times
Contact:  http://www.langleytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1230
Author: Dan Ferguson

TOWNSHIP BRINGS IN GROW-OP FINES

Marijuana growing in residential neighbourhoods will no longer be
allowed, under new Langley Township regulations given preliminary
approval by council on Monday, Feb. 3.

The changes to the property safety bylaw would impose a fine of up to
$10,000 a day on anyone who currently has a medical marijuana
production licence if they continue cultivating pot plants after March
31, when all of the small-scale growing licences issued by the federal
government are set to expire.

Under new medicinal marijuana regulations that take effect April 1,
growing will switch from the current system of small operations with
one or two clients to larger commercial-style bulk growing.

The planned Langley Township ban on residential pot growing will apply
to "the growth, planting, cultivation, manufacture, storage, transfer
or disposal of a controlled substance, including marijuana, unless
that person is authorized to do so pursuant to a commercial licence."

The measure won unanimous approval with little debate.

Councillor Charlie Fox called it "a very progressive
step."

The Township also wants to ban marijuana production on the
Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) that makes up 75 per cent of the
Township, but has yet to get a response from the provincial government
to the proposed regulation that would restrict growing to industrial
areas.

The Agricultural Land Commission (ALC), the agency that administers
the ALR, recently declared that medical marijuana growing on
agricultural land is protected under farming regulations that override
the the Township of Langley's authority. However, the agriculture
minister has yet to make a ruling.

Mayor Jack Froese has scheduled a meeting with the minister later this
month in Victoria to discuss the matter.

As of mid-December, at least eight businesses, seven of them located
on agricultural land, had expressed interest in growing medicinal
marijuana in Langley Township.

One of the would-be Langley growers, Koch Greenhouses owner Bruce
Bakker, has called the attempt to restrict medicinal marijuana
cultivation to industrial areas "troubling" because, he says, the ban
was drafted without consulting farmers.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D