Pubdate: Wed, 26 Feb 2014
Source: Burnaby Now, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.burnabynow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1592

MEDICAL POT FACTORIES ARE A STEP FORWARD

If someone had told us a decade ago that municipalities would be 
trying to figure out where and how to fit medical marijuana companies 
into their planning manuals today - well, we would have told them 
they must be smoking something. But, as reported recently in this 
paper, companies like Vancouver MediCann are trying to figure out 
exactly where and how they can fit into municipal boundaries and 
plans and make it all work.

As of April 1, the old federal marijuana medical access regulations 
under Health Canada are changing. Currently, private citizens are 
allowed to produce medical pot for personal use on a limited scale. 
The new rules move the production out of backyards and residential 
areas and into large-scale manufacturing facilities. This is mostly 
good. Burnaby, as other municipalities are, is working out the kinks 
in the system. It is putting together new bylaw provisions that would 
require an applicant to obtain council approval through the rezoning 
process, with a required public hearing.

This is also good.

The arguments over the worth of medical marijuana are largely over, 
and its value is now recognized. Does that mean that we won't hear 
about users who may abuse the new system and service? No, we're sure 
there'll be instances and stories about folks misusing the service. 
There were in the current system. As in most things, there will be 
people who try to take advantage of loopholes and profit on other 
people's needs.

But this is a much-needed step forward.

For now many of the new companies are local start-ups with local 
owners. Let's hope it stays that way.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom