Medical Marijuana Grow Ops - Nipping Them in the Bud
By 250 News
Monday, February 21, 2011 09:01 PM
Prince George, B.C.- As far as Prince George City Hall knows, there is one licensed medical use marijuana grow op in the City limits. The problem the City is facing is how to ensure it doesn’t become saddled with responsibilities that belong to Health Canada.
As it stands today, the City of Prince George has no authority or regulation on the matter of medicinal marijuana grow ops that have been authorized federally through licences issued by Health Canada.
"We're not talking about whether medical marijuana is appropriate, " says Councillor Garth Frizzell "What I'ld like to investigate is what happens when there is a dispute between neighbours." Frizzell says the City of Victoria is about to put forth a resolution calling on the Federal Government to hand over responsibility for medical marijuana grow ops to the Province.
There is, at this point, nothing on the books to outline how such a dispute could be resolved. Because medical marijuana is licensed, it does not fall within the "controlled substance" act and therefore does not fall within the City's bylaw which is meant to crack down on illegal grow ops.
Councillor Brian Skakun says while he supports the resolution, he thinks it is much ado about nothing as there is only one known medical marijuan grower in the City. He says the focus should continue to be on cracking down on illegal grow ops.
Because the operations are licensed and regulated by a federal body, the City may have limited or no ability at all to prohibit this kind of activity within City limits.
Bylaw manager Guy Gusdal says the City may have some limited ability to regulate the activity through Land Use regulations but in the end, it will be up to the Court system to determine what, if any, authority the City may have.
Here are some of the issues:
- Currently, a local government will typically discover a medical marijuana grow op after investigating a complaint or possibly through the local Police as a result of a police investigation. Health Canada does not have any provisions for notifying local authorities of marijuana production licences in a municipality‟s jurisdiction.
- Will the federal government have enough resources on hand to ensure such grow ops are not causing an impact to others in, for example, the area of odour control?
- Staff with Development Services, Environment Division feel the city does not have the authority through either the Clean Air Bylaw or the Community Charter to control the odour being created by a plant, regardless of the type of plant. The provincial Health Authority may have the ability to respond to odour issues, however, experience to date indicates this authority is only exercised when a proven human health issue exists due to the odour/smell.
- There are concerns over the need for special building inspections to ensure the construction of a grow op complies with the building and fire codes as it is possible a medical marijuana grow op could be set up and operated without making any changes to the building.
City staff advise against taking on any responsibility for regulating, inspecting or enforcing the rules around a Medical Marijuana grow op, those are issues Staff believe should be handled by the Federal Government.
Because it is unlikely Health Canada will propose a complete licensing and regulatory system with sufficient staff resources, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM)has come up with a resolution that calls on Health Canada to modify its legislation and regulations to require their licensee's to demonstrate compliance with local bylaws and applicable safety regulations before they are granted a medial marijuana production license. The resolution also calls for the creation and implementation of a notification process by Health Canada to notify local governments of all medical marijuana use and production licenses that are issued in their jurisdiction.
City Staff presented a few options to Council:
Option 1: Status Quo
Staff will continue responding to issues as they arise with respect to specific bylaw infractions and taking the appropriate action.
Option 2: Prohibit Medical Marijuana Grow Operations from Residential Zones
At Council‟s instruction, staff would bring forward appropriate Zoning Bylaw amendments that would effectively prohibit medical marijuana grow operations from residential zones in the city. The Amendment would be processed through the Public Hearing process. However, staff believe any municipal regulation that could effectively ban medical marijuana grow operations would likely need to be brought before the Courts to definitively determine if the regulations are valid
Option 3: Regulate Medical Marijuana Grow Operations through the Zoning Bylaw
Such a bylaw would define Medical Marijuana Grow Operations (Personal-Use Production Licence or a Designated-Person Production Licence) as an Accessory Use; create general regulations for the new accessory use consisting of the following:
o limit the number of plants per room;
o require all plants to be grown naturally with natural sunlight;
o prohibit the use of grow/artificial lights;
o prohibit the practice of sealing a room with plastic sheeting or construction house wrap; and
o prohibit the practice of diverting house generated CO2 gas or otherwise provided CO2 gas to “feed‟ plants.
In his report to Council Guysdal says these regulations should address the issues of odour complaints, and the safety concerns for building occupants, emergency response personnel and area residents (mold, CO2 poisoning, electrical/fire hazards and potential grow rips).
Option 4: Continue to Lobby the Federal Government through the FCM for Changes to the Regulations
In addition to the Status Quo outlined in Option #1, Council would continue to lobby the Federal Government through the FCM to change the regulations to address the issues and concerns with medical marijuana production.
Council has unanumously approved writing the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Executive, as well as the Health Canada administrative staff responsible for reviewing the existing medical marijuana production regulations,
as indicated in the letter from the Minister of Health to the FCM, of health and safety contraventions of municipal bylaws regarding licensed marijuana production properties. Council has also approved writing a letter of support to the FCM in support of their resolution which address medical marijuana use regulations.
As for a dispute resolution, Mayor Dan Rogers says his initial reaction is to tell folks to solve it amongst themselves "Do you really want government in every aspect of your life? That is not what people are telling me on the street."
He has support from Councillor Don Bassermann, who says "This is not a cost we need to incure."
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Posted by: gus on February 21 2011 11:06 PM
Much ado about nothing. Should city hall not be out spending $50 million on an arts center or giving our tax money to some dude so he can get a face lift. For his building that is.