Pubdate: Wed, 02 Apr 2014
Source: Chilliwack Progress (CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 The Chilliwack Progress
Contact: http://www.theprogress.com/contact_us/
Website: http://www.theprogress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/562
Author: Greg Knill

WHERE CONFUSION REIGNS

It's difficult to imagine a more botched rollout than the policies 
and procedures surrounding the use of "medical marijuana" in Canada.

For years municipal government's like Chilliwack have sought clarity 
on an edict, set down not by elected officials, but by the courts.

That decision - that the federal government must allow limited access 
to marijuana for medical purposes - has garnered nothing but 
confusion, regulator chaos and a virtual cottage industry of illegal activity.

The federal government's recent attempt to patch the gaping holes 
left in the original "plan" is off the rails again following a recent 
supreme court injunction.

That injunction is now being appealed by the federal government as it 
prepares to battle a constitutional challenge. Consequently, people 
who had been allowed to grow their own marijuana, but were told to 
stop by April 1, have no idea if, or for how long, they can produce 
their own drug.

More so, the municipal governments, police and public safety 
officials expected to enforce or monitor these operations are once 
again scrambling.

But if it's a mess, it's nothing new.

Ever since the courts allowed the personal cultivation of marijuana 
for medical purposes, there has been confusion.

Federal privacy laws prevented local governments from knowing where 
these cottage pot farms existed. They could be in the neighbour's 
house, or in an unused garage.

That lack of clarity and accountability opened the system to abuse. 
Growers licensed to produce a specific amount for themselves could, 
with little oversight, produce extra to offset their costs. A legal 
grow op licensed for 74 plants in Cultus Lake, for example, was found 
to have 450 plants when it was busted a few years ago, police say.

The new federal regulations that were to come into effect yesterday, 
were supposed to change that.

But once again, confusion prevails.

That uncertainty helps no one. It fails the communities in which 
these lucrative and potentially illegal operations exist, and it 
fails the people who have come to count on the relief medical 
marijuana provides.

Surely we can do better.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom