Pubdate: Tue, 03 Feb 2015
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Authors: Bethany Lindsay and Tara Carman
Page: A7

DISPENSARIES CAN'T GET PRODUCT LEGALLY

Police worry about organized crime involvement as business booms in
legal vacuum

The dozens of pot dispensaries that have sprouted up in Vancouver over
the last few years rely exclusively on illegal suppliers to keep their
businesses going because they have no legal means of obtaining medical
marijuana.

Vancouver police are operating under the assumption that many of the
city's marijuana dispensaries are obtaining their pot from people with
Health Canada licences to grow small amounts for personal use, said
Sgt. Randy Fincham.

"Somehow, they're getting rid of their marijuana, and somehow the
stores at the street level are obtaining their marijuana. The stores
don't have a licence to buy and the homes don't have a licence to
sell," Fincham said.

The B.C. Compassion Club Society gets its marijuana only from trusted
growers, said spokeswoman Jamie Shaw, but the arrangement is "not at
all" legal. "We've got exclusivity contracts with our growers so that
everything they grow we purchase," she said.

The medical marijuana industry has changed drastically in the time the
compassion club has existed, said Shaw, who is also president of the
Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries. There are about
60 unlicensed dispensaries in Vancouver now, up from just 12 in 2013.
Although the dispensary is operating outside the law, Shaw said the
club has taken great pains to distance itself from organized crime.

Dana Larsen, the founding director of the Vancouver Medical Cannabis
Dispensary, said his two locations source their marijuana from "mom
and pop" growers - small scale, home-based operations that can include
people with Health Canada licences to grow for personal use.

"We don't really ask them necessarily if they're licensed or not. It's
not legal to sell to us regardless, but it's not really legal for us
to do what we do either," he said.

Many medical marijuana dispensaries are doing their best, in the
absence of government regulations, to regulate themselves and ensure
they are getting a safe and reliable product, while others are not,
according to Zach Walsh, a psychology professor at the University of
B.C. who studies the effects of cannabis use. Without a legal
framework, it is impossible to tell the good from the bad, he said.

"The big concern for me is =C2=85 it's not good to be providing resources

to people who are doing something that's against the law, but really,
how can we ensure that patients are getting the proper quality of
cannabis if the chain of supply is not clear? It really highlights
that we need to bring dispensaries into the Health Canada program so
that we can ask questions about where are you getting your cannabis
from," Walsh said.

Neighbourhood growers were shut out of Canada's new medical marijuana
scheme in favour of new, larger growers who will sell to patients
through a secure delivery system. But they were allowed to keep their
licences after a judge issued a court injunction in response to a
legal challenge filed by home growers.

"Certainly there are people out there who still appear to be growing
marijuana without a valid licence," Fincham said. "A number of these
growers are connected to organized crime, on the licensed and
unlicensed side, and presumably they're finding a way to sell their
marijuana."
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MAP posted-by: Matt