The Municipality of North Cowichan is considering prohibiting the retail sale of marijuana within its boundaries. That means that any application to set up a pot shop in North Cowichan would require a site-specific zoning amendment that would have to come before council to be considered. In anticipation of the upcoming legalization of pot, expected this summer, North Cowichan's council gave first and second reading at its meeting on Jan. 17 to the zoning bylaw amendment. This proposed zoning amendment will now proceed to a public hearing, and the time and place of the hearing will be announced. [continues 311 words]
The owners of Green Aura, a marijuana dispensary in Chemainus, received another $200 ticket from the Municipality of North Cowichan last week. It's the second ticket from bylaw officers in a matter of weeks for the dispensary, given for not having a business licence, and co-owner Trevor Pewarchuk said he's "frustrated" with the municipality and the failure, so far, by the federal government to legalize marijuana. It's a sentiment shared not only by other pot dispensaries in the Cowichan Valley, but by many local officials as well. [continues 863 words]
Sophie Reid said she knew the legalization of marijuana in Canada was inevitable. But now that the federal Liberal government has finally announced plans to legalize and regulate marijuana in Canada by the spring of 2017, Reid is not sure what it will mean for her and her business. Reid is part owner of the Cowichan Valley Access Centre, one of two medical marijuana dispensaries currently operating in the Cowichan Valley. The other is WarmLand Cannabis in Mill Bay. "I'm excited about the government's announcement," Reid said. "(Prime Minister Justin) Trudeau said he would invest in the middle class, and that's what we are, so we see this as a fulfillment of a promise." [continues 862 words]
There were 41 alcohol-related deaths in the Lake Cowichan area in 2013, and another 35 in the Cowichan Valley area in the same year. Paul Hasselback, medical health officer for central Vancouver Island, also told Duncan's city council earlier this week that alcohol consumption is increasing in the region, and across Vancouver Island. In his presentation, "Substance Use and Misuse", Hasselback said the Lake Cowichan area has the distinction of having the highest drinking rates on the Island, with an average intake per person of approximately 17 litres of "absolute alcohol" per year. [continues 235 words]
Ron Stasynec is fed up with the almost daily incidents at what he believes is a drug house in his North Cowichan neighbourhood. The situation has gotten so bad that Stasynec is even considering selling his home and moving from the community. Stasynec claims cars start dropping by the house in the early afternoons to buy drugs from dealers, and the frequency of cars and people increase in the evenings. He said there's lots of noise at the house almost all the time, and his home and some of his neighbours' houses and properties have been vandalized by people connected to the problem dwelling. [continues 582 words]
Discarded needles are becoming an increasing problem in the downtown Duncan area. The city's public works department has sent a memo to businesses downtown that staff have been encountering a lot of discarded needles in the area that are being left in garbage cans, public washrooms, parks, trails and other sites. The memo stated that the number of discarded needles being found in the area is up to approximately two dozen a month, a dramatic increase from just six months ago. [continues 285 words]
The City of Duncan is looking for its fair share of taxes from marijuana dispensaries when they are finally legalized, even though the city's bylaws currently prohibit such businesses. City council passed a motion at Monday's meeting asking that the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities lobby the federal government to request that a portion of any future federal and provincial tax collected through marijuana sales and distribution be shared with local governments. The resolution will be presented at the AVICC's conference, scheduled for April 9, and also forwarded to the Union of B.C. Municipalities. [continues 319 words]
Operators of a number of medicinal marijuana dispensaries in Nanaimo think that the federal government is playing politics with the industry. Robert Clarke, who operates five Limelife medical cannabis dispensaries, said the decision by Health Canada to send out cease-and-desist letters to a number of medicinal marijuana dispensaries across the country is a blatant effort by the ruling Conservatives to garner votes for the upcoming federal election. Clarke said he believes the move is an "election ploy" by Stephen Harper to try to get "old-timers" to vote for the government as the prime minister realizes his chances of winning re-election are growing increasingly slim. [continues 248 words]
Report Indicates Business Paid $8.5m in Tax Revenue Alone The new report, which was presented Wednesday morning, states that Tilray contributed approximately $8.5 million in tax revenues to all three levels of government in 2014. Tilray, the medical-marijuana production facility at Duke Point, has contributed approximately $48 million into the local and B.C. economies in 2014, according to the accounting firm MNP LLP. That includes the total direct, indirect and induced economic impacts of the construction and operation of Tilray's 60,000 square-foot facility in Nanaimo last year. [continues 314 words]
Group in Yellow Point 'virulently opposed' to application to construct facility on Quennel Road A proposal for a medicinal marijuana operation in Yellow Point is not getting rave reviews from many of its neighbours. The Yellow Point Concerned Citizens group, consisting of neighbours from the area, claim to be "virulently opposed" to an application by Vancouver-based Wildflower Marijuana Inc. to construct and operate a medicinal pot facility on Quennel Road. Spokeswoman Frances Lasser said the group has sent letters to Health Canada, provincial and federal politicians and has received support from the Regional District of Nanaimo in its campaign to halt the project in its tracks. [continues 324 words]
The public is being asked to provide input on whether mandatory criminal record checks for elected trustees in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district should be implemented. The board decided in a close 5-4 vote last week to proceed with the process and district spokeswoman Donna Reimer said the public will have 30 days to give input into the issue, although she couldn't say whether the 30 day period would begin this summer, or wait until the fall. Trustee Jamie Brennan was one of the four who opposed the motion, calling it "intrusive and unnecessary." [continues 185 words]
Mandatory criminal record checks for elected school trustees in Nanaimo-Ladysmith are on the table again. The school board has asked staff to develop a policy for trustees to provide a criminal record check once elected. The policy will likely be tabled in July in time for the next municipal elections on November. Trustee Donna Allen introduced the motion at a board meeting this week. Allen delayed taking her oath of office for several weeks after she was re-elected in the last elections in 2011 because she didn't think new trustee Bill Bard should be allowed to serve because of his 2006 conviction for the cultivation of marijuana. [continues 200 words]
Board Chairman Says He Hopes Issue Has Been 'Put To Rest' The Nanaimo-Ladysmith school board has voted for the second time in a month against criminal record checks for trustees. With a 4-4 tie vote, the school board defeated a motion on Wednesday that would have required successful trustee candidates to submit to criminal record checks after an election. Trustee Sharon Welch was absent from the meeting. If the board had approved the motion, it would likely have been tabled at this spring's annual general meeting of the B.C. School Trustees' Association in an effort to make it a provincial policy for all of B.C. school trustees. [continues 294 words]
Nanaimo trustees have struck down a movement within their ranks to require criminal record checks for candidates. The Tuesday vote was 6-2 against the motion, with Donna Allen, who introduced the motion, and newly elected trustee Kim Howland the only board members to support the policy. However, board chairman Jamie Brennan introduced a new motion that would require successful trustee candidates to submit to criminal record checks after an election. His motion is not expected to be tabled until February, possibly at annual general meeting of the B.C. School Trustees' Association. [continues 225 words]
The Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district's new board of trustees will consider advocating for mandatory criminal record checks for trustee candidates. Trustee Donna Allen has made a motion on the issue for next month's annual general meeting of the B.C. School Trustees' Association. If the majority of the local trustees agree with Allen's recommendation, the board will ask the association to urge the provincial government to amend the Criminal Records Review Act to require all school board candidates in B.C. to submit a current criminal record check along with their nomination papers. [continues 469 words]
Nanaimo Man Says 'Everything Is Being Slowly Taken Away From Us' By Tories Gregory Twyman wonders about the future of medicinal marijuana in Canada. Twyman has a licence from Health Canada to grow up to 75 plants. Nanaimo's Gregory Twyman wonders about the future of medicinal marijuana in Canada. Twyman has a licence from Health Canada to grow up to 75 pot plants to help deal with a variety of illnesses he has been diagnosed with; including arthritis and an inflammation of his prostate and urinary glands. [continues 420 words]
Nanaimo's new Organic Matters Compassionate Access Centre for medical marijuana offers a variety of products; including cookies, oils, skin creams and even chocolates laced with pot. But the Wallace Street business isn't open to your average pot head. Customers have to have the written recommendation of a doctor and a user licence from Health Canada before they can shop at the store. It's the latest attempt to set up a medicinal marijuana operation in Nanaimo and the mid-Island region after unsuccessful attempts in the past. [continues 329 words]
There were 671 suspensions handed out to students in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith school district for the first seven months of the school year, with 139 due to drug and/or alcohol offences in the district's high schools. The other major offences causing suspensions from September until the end of March include fighting (117), defiance (51), assault (45) and theft (22). Other less-common offences include throwing snowballs, vandalism and smoking on school property, according to a district report. The months of October and November show a spike in suspensions, totaling 231 incidents. [continues 301 words]
Cedar's David Hodgkinson will head to court on March 15 to face trafficking and cultivations charges after his medicinal marijuana grow-op was raided by police last week. Nanaimo RCMP spokesman Gary O'Brien said Hodgkinson's licence from Health Canada to grow medical pot expired in August and he was well in excess of the number of plants he was allowed to grow under the licence. Hodgkinson is suspected of illegally selling pot and never had a licence to grow in the rented home that he has lived in for much of the past year. [continues 433 words]
A call to Health Canada earlier this week, asking why the federal agency is so far behind in renewing the licences of those they permit to grow medicinal marijuana, has me scratching my head. My call came as the result of a conversation I had with Cedar's David Hodgkinson, who was charged with illegal cultivation after his medicinal marijuana grow-op was raided by the RCMP last week. Hodgkinson claims his licence to grow the pot from Health Canada expired in August, even though he applied for the renewal eights weeks before it expired. [continues 407 words]
