While news spread this week of Powell River RCMP taking down what it considered to be the beginnings of a "dial-a-dope" operation, a lot of questions were raised. The initial question being: what exactly is a "dial-a-dope" operation? Turns out it is a way of using disposable cell phones, or "burner phones," to keep police off the trail of drug suppliers. Look how well that went after someone phoned in an anonymous tip about the upstart operation. [continues 318 words]
As long as marijuana remains illegal in Canada, we are trapped in a grey area that takes away our power as consumers. All Canadians should have the right to know what is in the products they buy, yet because of Health Canada's insistence that it is illegal for dispensaries or consumers to test marijuana products it also deems illegal, we are unable to find out if what we are buying is safe. Without requirements for unlicensed marijuana producers to test their products, Health Canada is also not ensuring product safety at the source. [continues 296 words]
Experts agree testing needed on marijuana products sold in storefronts As Canada inches closer to legalized marijuana, safety standards for dispensary-sold medical cannabis are being brought under greater scrutiny. In an investigation done by The Globe and Mail in August, one third of medical marijuana samples collected from Toronto area dispensaries showed the presence of chemicals and mould that could cause a variety of illnesses in users, such as lung infections, particularly in patients with compromised immune systems. One of the Toronto dispensaries whose product failed that test was WeeMedical, a chain that also operates in Powell River on Marine Avenue. [continues 673 words]
Concerned Residents Voice Need For Reliable Medical Marijuana City of Powell River council has moved to have city staff begin investigating the process of regulating medical-marijuana dispensaries. Councillor Russell Brewer motioned at the Tuesday, May 17, committee of the whole meeting, with council chambers at capacity with medical marijuana supporters, to have staff look into how the city can allow the dispensaries to operate, similar to the way other BC municipal governments have approached the increasingly widespread issue. "I don't want to wait around for another two years while the feds wait to decide how and when they are going to do what they may or may not do," said Brewer. "We need to move on what we can control, and that's location, size, hours of operation and who can go into these stores." [continues 428 words]
Councillors advised to wait for Abbotsford decision City of Powell River officials are waiting for a decision from the province's highest court before making a decision on how to handle the opening of a non-profit marijuana dispensary chain outlet on Marine Avenue. WeeMedical Dispensary Society, based in Nanaimo, set up shop on Wednesday, April 13. The dispensary opened without a business licence and city officials said they did not receive an application, despite the city's requirements that all businesses be licensed. Powell River RCMP has said it considers the operation illegal. [continues 498 words]
City of Powell River and RCMP Deem New Enterprise Illegal Powell River now has a second medical marijuana dispensary providing cannabis products to the public, despite the fact RCMP and City of Powell River mayor Dave Formosa say it is illegal. WeeMedical Dispensary Society, a dispensary chain started in Nanaimo which is a non-profit society, set up shop at the corner of Marine Avenue and Courtenay Street on Wednesday, April 13. WeeMedical joins Grassroots Botanicals Wellness Cooperative, which reopened its dispensary on Willingdon Avenue in January. [continues 594 words]
A recent death of a young man in Powell River due to an overdose that Powell River RCMP suspect involved fentanyl was a tragic reminder that the area has a desperate need for more harm-reduction programs. Powell River Community Health has been forward thinking in providing a long-running needle-exchange program that supplies intravenous drug users with clean syringes and a host of other crucial resources and services. The needle exchange is part of a province-wide harm-reduction program and has been run out of Powell River General Hospital for the past 20 years. [continues 250 words]
It is neither reasonable nor responsible to create opportunity, infrastructure and regulation for a small business sector and then rip the carpet out from under all who've gathered to make an honest go of it. The April 1 deadline rendering prior marijuana production licences obsolete is fast approaching and to date there are only a handful of new licences issued in all of Canada; there are only three in BC. The august days of new romance have passed. Growers who under the prior framework were treated as affiliates are now being handled with derision; like a jilted lover, Health Canada has gone flip-switch. What was characterized by a dialogue of support now seems an unpredictable mood shift. Formerly licensed growers must cease and desist, or face prosecution. It is a situation with some parallels to prohibition-era liquor law enforcement, which at times in the back-and-forth of policy management, must have seemed arbitrary. [continues 212 words]
Critics of medical marijuana plan call decision small victory Licensed medical marijuana users breathed a collective sigh of relief after a federal court handed down a last-minute reprieve which allows them to continue to grow their own pot at home. Critics of the Conservative government's plans to turn medical pot into a regulated billion-dollar industry have called the ruling a small victory. A coalition of patients is suing the federal government over concerns about changes to Health Canada's rules which govern how medical marijuana is produced and distributed. That trial is expected to happen sometime within the next nine to 12 months. [continues 1064 words]
Larsen Says Not Enough Signatures a Setback Not Defeat Sensible BC's signature collecting campaign may have gone to pot, but organizers are not taking this as a defeat. "This actually leaves the marijuana reform movement in British Columbia in a stronger place than before we started," said Sensible BC organizer Dana Larsen. "We're going to continue to work on this and you can be sure that we'll be back on another signature gathering effort." Just over 200,000 signatures were delivered to Elections BC Monday, December 9, approximately 100,000 fewer than required to meet the standard set out in the Recall and Initiative Act. [continues 371 words]
Sensible BC Has Over Half the Signatures It Needs in Powell River-Sunshine Coast Sensible BC's CannaBus stopped over in Powell River last week during a tour of Vancouver Island to collect signatures for its marijuana referendum campaign. The bus was in Powell River on Thursday evening, October 17, and the following morning. Then it boarded a ferry for the Lower Sunshine Coast, for stops in Sechelt and Gibsons before it went back to the Lower Mainland. The group wants to pass the Sensible Policing Act, which would stop police from searching or arresting people for marijuana possession. If volunteers gather enough signatures, it would trigger a referendum in September 2014. [continues 382 words]
Organizers Push for September Start Come this fall Powell River residents will likely find themselves answering the door to a canvasser and being asked to sign a petition to decriminalize pot. Sensible BC director Dana Larsen is currently touring around the province drumming up support for the marijuana referendum campaign. "Our work is to build momentum, get people excited about the campaign and to register several thousand British Columbians as signature gathers," said Larsen. Elections BC has given approval in principle for a proposed law which would effectively decriminalize marijuana possession in the province. The proposed law, called the Sensible Policing Act, would direct the attorney general, who sets policing priorities in the province, to not put any resources into enforcing federal laws pertaining to marijuana possession for adults. It would also call on Ottawa to allow BC to begin legally taxing and regulating cannabis much like alcohol and tobacco. [continues 252 words]
Mayor Sees Growing Potential City of Powell River mayor and council voted unanimously last week in support of a motion that would allow the city to take advantage of new rules around medical marijuana and step in at the ground level. Councillor Debbie Dee introduced the motion to the special council meeting on Thursday, July 18, after council heard staff's report on the city growing and researching medical marijuana and industrial hemp. "This is not about decriminalization of marijuana," said Mac Fraser, chief administrative officer. "It's putting [medical marijuana] into a regulatory and law-enforcement scheme." [continues 573 words]
Municipalities Could Benefit From Increase In Tax Revenue It's an idea whose time has come, according to a cannabis activist who says a strong majority of British Columbians now support the decriminalization of the drug. Former provincial New Democratic Party leadership candidate Dana Larsen spoke to a group of about 35 people in the Poplar Room at Powell River Recreation Complex on Thursday, January 24. Larsen, a founding member of both the national and provincial marijuana parties, has been touring around the province since October 2012 in support of his Sensible BC campaign. [continues 429 words]
Broad-Base Supports Measure To Fight Crystal Meth, Ecstasy A private member's bill that would make it a crime to procure the ingredients of crystal meth and ecstasy for the purpose of manufacturing the drugs passed second reading unanimously recently in the House of Commons. John Weston, MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country sponsored the bill and is urging quick passage. As lawmakers were leaving the House after the April 14, 287-0 vote, Weston asked one of his colleagues from the Bloc Quebecois whether it was easy for him to vote for Bill C-475. [continues 358 words]
First-Term MP Sums Up Event-filled First Full Year In Office "Shrinking the distance" between John Weston's far-flung BC riding and Ottawa has been one of the major themes of the West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country member of Parliament's first full year in office. First elected in October 2008, the Conservative MP said in a wide-ranging year-end interview last week that while he's had the honour of going on two major international trips in 2009-including Prime Minister Stephen Harper's recent sojourn to China, Hong Kong and South Korea-he has enjoyed the challenge of what he termed standing the "pyramid" on its head and allowing communities to take a leading role in setting his agenda. [continues 860 words]
Bill C-475 Targets Ecstasy And Crystal Meth A private member's bill aimed at giving Canadian law enforcement the necessary tools to deal with ecstasy and crystal meth passed its first test in the House of Commons this past week thanks to MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country John Weston. Weston introduced Bill C-475 on November 2 in the House. The bill, introduced previously in a slightly different form by MP for Peace River Chris Warkentin, originally attracted unanimous support in the House and broad acclaim from law enforcement officers, educators, parents and others across Canada. The bill got to second reading in the Senate before it was stalled when the last election was called. [continues 259 words]
Popular Street Drug Claims Young Life It may be called ecstasy, but consequences of using the illegal party drug can be anything but ecstatic. "The prevalence of ecstasy is now being seen in all communities across BC, including Powell River," said RCMP Constable Kerri Chard. "Just months ago, Powell River RCMP were notified that a suspicious bag of pills was found in a public location. Police seized the pills, which are suspected to be ecstasy." These particular tablets were bright orange, decorated with a logo that may be attractive to some young people, featuring a picture of a firearm. [continues 375 words]
Tla'Amin (Sliammon) First Nation members have shown strength and courage in dealing with the prevalence of drugs within their community. About 80 Tla'Amin residents gathered to deliver ultimatums to residents at 12 houses on the reserve who are known to be involved in dealing drugs. A speaker read a statement using a bullhorn and then notices were duct-taped to the doors of the houses. The notices, in part, told the named residents to cease all drug activity immediately. Recipients were given the option of volunteering within 24 hours to be given a plan by Tla'Amin Community Health Services to become healthy and drug-free. The alternative involves eviction, denial of access to social services and banishment of a specific term of years from the Tla'Amin reserve lands. [continues 233 words]
Tla'Amin members, ranging from newborns to elders, express community's intolerance toward trafficking Tla'Amin (Sliammon) First Nation residents demonstrated that they will not tolerate drug activity on the reserve, posting eviction notices on the doors of 12 residences. The precipitator for widespread community action against drug dealers was the death of 20-year-old Emma Megan Wilson, who was fatally injured on the reserve on Saturday, July 25. About 80 band members, plus two Powell River RCMP officers, participated in a procession that led around streets on the reserve, advising the persons named in the notices that they either had 24 hours to enter drug treatment, or face eviction, denial of social services and banishment from the first nation. The first house where a notice was read and posted was the house where Wilson was killed. [continues 1688 words]
