Will create a new line of pot-infused food and drinks for U.S. market A Maple Ridge marijuana company is going public with an injection of cash from a venture capitalist. Remo Cannabrands' half-million dollar partnership with Gold Finder Explorations will see it expand from a home-based business to 10,000-sq.-ft. warehouse. Remo Colasanti is the brain behind Remo Cannabrands, which sells nutrients to legal marijuana producers but has plans to create a new line of marijuana-infused edibles, beverages and tinctures. [continues 668 words]
Marijuana was 'wet' and not yet dried A man caught with 500 kilograms of marijuana last year admits he made a mistake by transporting such a large amount, but insists the crop was solely for medical use and was not all his. Amrit Pal Singh Niger was stopped on May 24, 2013 after a Ridge Meadows RCMP officer noticed "an overwhelming odour of marijuana permeating the air" when he drove past a white cube van. Police allege Niger was the driver, which he does not dispute. [continues 402 words]
Lower Mainland cities wary of property tax pitfall Pitt Meadows is set to ban medical marijuana operations in all zones of the city. On the recommendation of staff, council voted Tuesday to prohibit commercial medical marijuana facilities in industrial and agricultural areas, joining Abbotsford, White Rock and Langley, which have already moved to stop the enterprises from setting up. Pitt Meadows banned medical growops from residential areas in 2010. At a committee meeting, acting chief administrative officer Kim Grout said Pitt Meadows initially supported a plan to restrict the operations to industrial areas, but decided not too after a recent advisory from the B.C. Assessment Authority. [continues 341 words]
Critics Call for Review of 'Flawed' Legislation The lush rural property near Webster's Corner was a retirement plan for the elementary school teacher. Purchased in 2003, Penelope Carlson boards horses on a paddock amongst tall Douglas firs and cedars. As a favour to a friend, Carlson, 63, agreed to use a building on her four-hectare property to grow medical marijuana under Health Canada regulations. It was an operation that was legal, sanctioned by federal laws. Carlson's retirement plans were on track until November 2010, when an electrician tattled on her growop. [continues 1078 words]
New Federal; Rules Take Effect April 1 The District of Maple Ridge is trying to figure out what to do once home-based medical marijuana operations become illegal in two months. Starting April 1, the roughly 38,000 Canadians currently licensed to carry medicinal marijuana will no longer be allowed to grow their own cannabis or source it from small-scale designated growers. Instead, only large, commercial operations authorized by Health Canada will produce and sell pot. Patients will only get dried cannabis shipped to them via mail or courier, a dispensary or commercial grower. [continues 800 words]
Tosses Out Evidence On Digital Camera Memory Card A Maple Ridge woman accused of operating a marijuana grow operation will go to trial after a judge refused to toss out evidence she claimed RCMP obtained unlawfully. Katherine Merle Brown was arrested in April 2010 after Ridge Meadows RCMP raided a property at 28496 Bell Avenue on the suspicion that power was being stolen via a Hydro bypass. Investigation revealed that Brown was the registered owner of the property, as well as the B.C. Hydro subscriber. [continues 330 words]
Former Councillor Wants to Retain Dispensaries, Legal Grows A former councillor for the District of Maple Ridge is throwing his support behind a local medical cannabis dispensary by voicing concern about changes proposed by Health Canada. "The fear is that given the federal government's prejudice against anything that might hint of legalization, they will make it more difficult and a lot more expensive for sick people to access the medicine that works for them," said Craig Speirs. "It isn't in anyone's best interest to make criminals of sick people or those who are growing and dispensing their medicine." [continues 634 words]
The federal government is poised to eliminate licensed medical marijuana grow ops in homes that have long been criticized for safety concerns and connections to the illegal drug trade. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq announced in Maple Ridge on Sunday a planned shift to a new system of federally regulated commercial producers of medical pot who will supply authorized users with prescriptions from doctors. "Under our new rule, only facilities that meet strict security requirements will be able to produce marijuana for medical purposes," Aglukkaq said. [continues 513 words]
Hali Stus admits she was rather shocked when she spotted the billboard. Stopped at a traffic light on Lougheed Highway at Allen Way, she stared at it intently, realizing quickly, and much to her horror, it was advertising a bong. "I made a mental note of it," says Stus. The billboard for Hoss Glass was the second one she'd caught sight of that day. Stus saw the first one while driving through Port Coquitlam. When she got home, she researched the company and fired off an e-mail complaint to the billboard owners, CBS Outdoors Canada. [continues 383 words]
Marijuana busts in Maple Ridge dropped by half in the span of a year, according to statistics from Ridge Meadows RCMP, who suspect a proliferation of Health Canada licenses is to blame for the decrease. Year-end figures show police took down 34 grow operations in Maple Ridge in 2011 compared to 63 in 2010, while Pitt Meadows, where an electrical safety inspection program and bylaw to prohibit designated-growing are in place, saw three grow ops searched in 2011 and one in 2010. [continues 492 words]
A call by B.C.'s Chief Medical Health Officer for marijuana to be decriminalized in Canada is welcomed by patients at the Taggs Medical Cannabis Dispensary in Maple Ridge, who see his support as crucial on the path to eventually legalization. In a paper published in Open Medicine, an international, peer-reviewed medical journal, Dr. Perry Kendall and his Nova Scotia counterpart Dr. Robert Strang endorsed taxing and regulating cannabis as an effective way to improve health and safety in Canada. [continues 482 words]
You can hear the frustration in his voice as he describes the coming and goings of his neighbours. He keeps tabs on the steady stream of cars that frequent the farm and seethes when he thinks about the waft of marijuana that floats across the fields into his home on Richardson Road in Pitt Meadows. "I've got a stack of police cards," he says, lamenting the complaints about the marijuana grow operation that he's made to police and city officials for the past five years. [continues 898 words]
The federal government is looking to tighten rules on medical marijuana so only licensed, private operators are allowed to grow it. The proposed changes would create a new network of commercial-scale growers and phase out home-based grow operations. "Our government is very concerned that the current Marijuana Medical Access Program is open to abuse and exploitation by criminal elements," said Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq on Friday. "That is why we are proposing improvements to the program that will reduce the risk of abuse and keep our children and communities safe, while significantly improving the way program participants access marihuana for medical purposes." [continues 273 words]
A doctor has been ordered to pay the president of a Maple Ridge marijuana dispensary more than $300,000 following a botched back surgery. Michael Joinson, who heads the non-profit Always Growing Green Society, which operates Taggs Medical Cannabis Dispensary, won a total settlement of $310,289.14 to cover his loss of earnings and medical care as well as medications to treat pain, including cannabis capsules, dried marijuana and cannabis blended into baked goods such as cookies. Dr. Navraj Heran, a neurosurgeon, admitted he was negligent while performing a surgery on Joinson's lower back, but denied the surgery was solely responsible for the gradual onset of his chronic pain. [continues 178 words]
Tenants of a business park in east Maple Ridge allege the property is home to several illegal marijuana grow operations that have failed to be dismantled despite repeated complaints. Located at the end of 256th Street, past the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre, the Webster's Corner Business Park backs onto thick forest and is far from homes. On some days, said a man who owns a unit in the park, the smell of marijuana permeates the entire property. On Wednesday, the skunky scent of fresh marijuana hung in the air, as corrections officers took a lunch hour walk past the property. [continues 323 words]
Marc Dalton Thinks Health Canada Program Is 'Out Of Control' The provincial representative for Maple Ridge-Mission hopes the federal government takes a fresh look at regulations around medical marijuana now that the Conservatives have a majority. B.C. Liberal MLA Marc Dalton believes the program, administered by Health Canada, is "out of control." Dalton believes medical grow operations are linked to organized crime and that the federal program is being abused and causing problems in the community. However, "It is impossible to verify." [continues 473 words]
A horse trailer may have been used to smuggle a large quantity of drugs into a Maple Ridge prison. Police are investigating, but won't provide details on the trailer, which was dropped off for repairs at the Fraser Regional Correctional Centre by a woman on March 7. "We're working closely with B.C. Corrections on this file," said Ridge Meadows RCMP Cpl. Alanna Dunlop. "With this being an active investigation, we're not prepared to provide any specific details regarding this file as it may jeopardize the outcome." [continues 543 words]
A Maple Ridge woman who grew marijuana as medicine for her sick husband will not be going to prison. Provincial court judge Shehni Dossa instead imposed a 15-month conditional sentence on Shelley Raets, which will allow her to serve time in the community. "This was an elaborate growop in a number of rooms," Dossa said before handing Raets the sentence. "You didn't go about it the right way to get the appropriate exemptions from the government." Raets, 54, and her husband, Timothy Fury, were charged with production of a controlled substance, drug trafficking and theft of hydro in September, three months after Ridge Meadows RCMP raided a grow operation at their home. [continues 346 words]
Bylaws that target marijuana grow operations in the City of Pitt Meadows have nearly stamped out the illegal enterprise, according to figures released by the municipality and police. Not one grow op was busted by RCMP in Pitt Meadows last year, while only one inspection was conducted under the city's marijuana grow operation bylaw, which targets houses with abnormally high energy usage =AD more than 93 kilowatt-hours of electricity per day. At the beginning of January, officers dismantled one grow operation that housed more than 800 marijuana plants. [continues 451 words]
Mounties are targeting the homes, cars and businesses of criminals in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows in an attempt to curb crime and deter others from trying to set up shop in the municipalities. This year, two houses in Maple Ridge that were used to grow marijuana have been restrained or frozen under criminal proceeds legislation, while three others including a business are awaiting decisions from Crown. A house that held a marijuana grow operation and a "crack shack" are also being pursued under the Civil Forfeiture Act. [continues 606 words]
