Pubdate: Tue, 20 Jan 2015
Source: Langley Advance (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.langleyadvance.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1248
Author: Matthew Claxton

The Township Will Regulate the Smell of Growing Pot

MARIJUANA BYLAW BANS TERRIBLE ODOURS

Langley Township can't ban medical pot growing, but it will regulate 
excessive odour.

A bylaw that will penalize medical pot growers for foul odours was 
given preliminary approval by Langley Township council.

The new rules were put forward by Bill Storie, the Township's head of 
bylaw enforcement.

"We have a number of complaints," Storie said of pot-smell issues. 
"That's what we hear about, over and over again."

For the past several years, thousands of small marijuana farms and 
grow operations have been established across Canada under federal 
rules for medical marijuana production.

By April last year, they were expected to be largely dismantled. The 
federal government had planned to move to a system of larger, 
commercial marijuana farms rather than the many small local 
operations that supplied only a handful of patients each.

However, the federal Court of Appeal delayed that plan, as the court 
upheld the right of patients prescribed medical marijuana to keep 
growing their own supply of the drug at home.

Health Canada had estimated there were as many as 600 such medical 
grow ops in Langley alone, Storie said.

With no likelihood the small grows will go away soon, Storie said the 
bylaw is about managing them.

"If the smell wasn't there, most people wouldn't know they were 
there," he said.

If adopted, the new bylaw will allow neighbours to complain about 
smells, and Township bylaw officers will come by to check it out and 
see if it's bad enough to be ticketed.

There are already rules against bad odours generated by home-based 
businesses in place.

The rules will essentially mandate filtration systems to reduce or 
eliminate any bad smells.

Failure to comply could result in tickets of up to $500 per day.

The bylaw won't cover the entire Township, however. It will likely 
not apply in agricultural areas, where residents are expected to put 
up with odours from manure, livestock, and other normal farming practices.

The bylaw passed its first three readings by the council on Jan. 12 
and requires a final reading before coming into force.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom