North Shore residents should be able to buy marijuana in either private or government-run outlets, similar to liquor stores, but there should be strict regulations banning youth under 19 from accessing weed and roadside suspensions for drivers impaired by pot. Local municipalities also want a cut of marijuana revenues to help with enforcement of the rules and a say about where pot shops are set up. Those are some of the messages put forward by all three North Shore municipalities in response to a provincial call for submissions as B.C. considers how legal marijuana will be sold and regulated next year. Those responses received are now posted online by the province. [continues 310 words]
The District of North Vancouver is going to fight another pot shop in the courts. The municipality filed court documents Nov. 15 in B.C. Supreme Court, asking for an order that the owners of Medicinal Mary Jane Iprio Inc. operating at 1488 Pemberton Ave. stop selling marijuana and marijuana products, in contravention of local bylaws. The court documents also ask for an order authorizing police to arrest anyone who contravenes a judge's order in the case. Six people - residents of Vancouver, New Westminster and Richmond who are directors of the company, are named in the lawsuit, along with Orient Holdings Ltd, which owns the property where the marijuana retail shop operates. Legal documents also name the Medicinal Mary-Jane Canada Society and three people who are directors of the society, including Aaron Sinnathamby of Burnaby who is also a director of Medicinal Mary Jane Iprio Inc. [continues 450 words]
Pot shops that have opened in North Vancouver are hoping to stay when the province creates regulations about how marijuana should be sold when it's legalized next year. "Obviously we're hoping we'll still play a part in the whole thing. It sounds like there's room," said Michael Wuest, owner of the Weeds store at 991 Marine Dr. Wuest's was the first storefront to open up on the North Shore, in April 2015. Six storefront "dispensaries" currently operate in North Vancouver, five of those within city boundaries. [continues 531 words]
The greening of a grey economy Down in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale, just a couple of blocks in from the neighbourhood's bustling main drag, the LotusLand Cannabis Club's storefront proudly displays its green logo in a stripe across the front windows. The words "British Columbia's finest," almost look official. Inside, through a set of double doors that help keep the smell of marijuana off the street, there's a chalkboard with daily specials behind a large gleaming display counter. The light and airy atmosphere feels a bit like a high-end coffee or chocolate shop. Except it's not. On top of a low table in a seating area, there's a tray with Zigzag rolling papers. [continues 2966 words]
Former West Vancouver police chief and one-time solicitor general Kash Heed has a new line of work - offering advice to commercial medicinal marijuana growers. "I'm a security consultant and policy advisor," said Heed this week about his role in one of the country's greenest new industries. Heed said he sometimes accompanies marijuana company bosses as they explain their business to local governments and law enforcement officials. But he added he's choosy about which companies he gets involved with, and has turned down business from operations that were "not a good fit." [continues 330 words]
Local volunteers collecting signatures in a campaign to change the way marijuana laws are enforced say they aren't giving up, although they still need several thousand names to meet their target. "We do have momentum," said Michael Charrois, a former federal NDP candidate who is coordinating the campaign for Sensible B.C. in three of the North Shore ridings. "It's not too late." Recently, canvassers in North Vancouver-Lonsdale still had about 1,000 signatures to go to meet their target, while volunteers in both West Vancouver-Capilano and North Vancouver-Seymour still had 2,000 signatures to get. [continues 405 words]
Sign Launches Campaign to Sign Up Voters ON the same day the federal government announced it will bring in greater restrictions for medicinal marijuana users, advocates of less-restrictive pot laws also wrote their own message large, with a billboard in West Vancouver. For the rest of this week, drivers heading off the Lions Gate Bridge into North Vancouver will go past a billboard urging them to Join the Sensible BC Marijuana Referendum Campaign. The pro-pot lobby group SensibleBC is hoping the North Shore billboard will be the first among several in the Lower Mainland to get the word out in advance of a referendum campaign to decriminalize pot in the province. [continues 538 words]
WEST Vancouver MLA Joan McIntyre and former West Vancouver police chief Kash Heed have both come out in favour of legalizing marijuana. The two politicians - neither of whom are running in the next provincial election - both went public with their views in the past week. "As a society, I really think it's time we look at these issues in a different way," said McIntyre, who added she's been in favour of legalizing pot for some time. McIntyre said legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana would cut down on the gang violence fuelled by organized crime's control of and profit from illegal drugs. [continues 454 words]
Defence Argues Case Should Be Tossed Based on Precedent A lawyer for three people accused of running a marijuana dial-a-dope ring under the guise of providing medicinal marijuana has asked a judge to toss out the case, citing a four-year delay in bringing the case to trial. Defence lawyer Kirk Tousaw asked provincial court Judge Joanne Challenger to throw the case out, saying it's well beyond standards established by the Supreme Court of Canada to wait 46 months for a trial. [continues 543 words]
Mayor: Municipalities Can't Afford Tory Crime Agenda The City of North Vancouver has a clear message for Ottawa where it comes to rising police costs: If you're going to make the problem worse, at least pay for it. The city was among the communities putting in their two cents this week with Berry Vrbanovic, the president of the Federal of Canadian Municipalities, who was in the Lower Mainland to kick off a cross-country consultation on policing issues. "Policing is a significant portion of our budget," said city Mayor Darrell Mussatto. "We want to make sure our voices are heard." [continues 338 words]
Grow-Op Listings Will Be Publicly Posted for 1 Year A house in a residential neighbourhood off Mount Seymour Parkway where police discovered almost 900 marijuana plants this summer has become the first home on the North Shore listed in the RCMP's new marijuana grow operation website. North Vancouver RCMP searched the nondescript house at 3356 Garibaldi Way under a search warrant on June 30, and found a grow-op with 883 plants. That address is now among 69 in B.C. posted to a new online database that lists addresses across the country where Mounties have dismantled grow ops. [continues 630 words]
Weston Says Bill Tries to Balance Rights of Victims With Accused THE Conservative government wasted little time in introducing its new crimefighting bill Tuesday. Called the Safe Streets and Communities Act, the bill re-introduces several pieces of crimefighting legislation that were before Parliament when the federal election was called. West Vancouver MP John Weston described the bill as an attempt to balance the rights of victims with those of people accused of crimes. Weston said in most of the cases brought to his attention, victims feel they have few rights in the justice system compared to criminals. "I see this as a response to what Canadians want," he said. [continues 486 words]
A former North Vancouver Mountie is suing the government and the RCMP for raiding his home twice and seizing his medicinal marijuana supply. Carlos Cavaco and his common-law wife Marnie O'Neil filed the lawsuit against Health Canada, the Minister of Public Safety and the RCMP in B.C. Supreme Court Aug. 25. The couple, who both have licences to use and grow medical marijuana, are suing for damages for "assault, false imprisonment, invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of nervous shock and loss of reputations." [continues 362 words]
TWO men who were arrested leaving a British Properties grow op where police seized 450 plants have had the case against them tossed out of court, on the grounds West Vancouver police officers violated their rights. Ngoc Hang Huynh and Van Hoang Huynh were arrested Feb. 3, 2006 after police who were watching a suspected grow op saw the pair pull up to the house, go inside and drive off again. The pair were arrested shortly after, when officers pulled over their minivan. They were taken to the police station, fingerprinted and photographed. [continues 417 words]
A provincial court judge has sent a dial-a-dope crack dealer to jail for six months, saying traffickers need to get the message there will be consequences for their actions. Judge Carol Baird Ellan sent the get-tough message to Gordon Adam Thompson, 32, of Burnaby who was nabbed in November 2009 after West Vancouver police set up a sting operation. Thompson was caught selling cocaine out of a vehicle after West Vancouver officers called a phone number twice in one week to arrange the drug deals. Thompson sold the officers $40 of drugs each time. [continues 254 words]
Police showed a 'pattern of carelessness' Two men arrested as they left a British Properties marijuana-growing operation have had the case against them tossed out on the grounds that West Vancouver police officers violated their rights. Ngoc Hang Huynh and Van Hoang Huynh were arrested Feb. 3, 2006 after police who were watching a suspected growing operation saw the pair pull up to the house, go inside and drive off again. The pair were arrested shortly afterwards, when officers pulled over their minivan. They were taken to the police station, fingerprinted and photographed. [continues 279 words]
Handgun And Coke Found But Rights Disregarded A B.C. Supreme Court justice has tossed out drug and weapons charges against a North Vancouver man, saying police violated his rights to obtain the evidence against him. Madam Justice Catherine Bruce ruled an illegal handgun and an ounce of cocaine found in Kenneth Gaba's apartment could not be admitted as evidence in his trial because North Vancouver RCMP violated his rights both before and after searching his home. "Along the spectrum of seriousness, I find the conduct of the police in this case was very serious . . I find that their conduct bordered on recklessness or willful blindness in regard to Mr. Gaba's charter rights," wrote the judge. [continues 455 words]
NV Detachment Backs Off on Court Order for Heavy Consumers THE North Vancouver RCMP have backed off on a request that would have forced BC Hydro to turn over the records of more than a thousand North Vancouver homeowners using large amounts of power to police. On Thursday, at a closed-door hearing in North Vancouver provincial court, the federal department of justice withdrew the request for the Hydro records after facing a court challenge by the power authority. BC Hydro filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court this month fighting the request after a North Vancouver judge ordered the power company to hand over a list of residential addresses to police of anyone in North Vancouver whose power consumption averaged more than 93 kilowatt hours per day. [continues 604 words]
North Van Detachment Backs Off on Court Order for Heavy Consumers North Vancouver RCMP have backed off on a request that would have forced BC Hydro to turn over the records of more than a thousand North Vancouver homeowners using large amounts of power to police. On Thursday, at a closed-door hearing in North Vancouver provincial court, the federal department of justice withdrew the request for the Hydro records after facing a court challenge by the power authority. BC Hydro filed a petition in B.C. Supreme Court this month fighting the request after a North Vancouver judge ordered the power company to hand over a list of residential addresses to police of anyone in North Vancouver whose power consumption averaged more than 93 kilowatt hours per day. [continues 604 words]
