Editor:
The June 29 edition of The Gazette contained an article about the RDKB approving, in principle, to support a medical marijuana pilot project as presented by the Grand Forks Compassionate Society (GFCS). Details were not available to the public.
Those details are now available on the city’s website under council agenda package for the Aug. 15 meeting which includes the minutes of the June 23 meeting of the RDKB.
I attended council meeting on Aug. 15, attempting to provide additional information relevant to the medical marijuana pilot project and was cut off by the mayor.
Following is some of the information he does not want people of Grand Forks to know:
In Proposed Improvements to Health Canada’s Marihuana Medical Access Program (MMAP) documentation, it is very clear Health Canada has no intention of relinquishing control over the production and distribution of medical marijuana.
They will be proceeding directly to commercial producers, bypassing the perceived need for a pilot project and commercial producers will be restricted from establishing operations in residential areas.
The director, office of controlled substances, Health Canada states: “...Health Canada does not license organizations such as compassion clubs or dispensaries to possess, produce or distribute marihuana for medical purposes.”
The B.C. provincial government, in its response to a September 2010 resolution of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, clearly states it “...has neither the necessary expertise nor the infrastructure to license individuals who apply to possess marihuana or to monitor its production, cultivation quality and distribution.”
Under these conditions, we may hope the federal and provincial governments will deny GFCS’s pilot project.
It is offensive that GFCS (Joy Davies is chairperson), assisted by RDKB, even suggest foisting this sort of project onto Grand Forks that citizens have been very vocally opposed to since early-2009 when this hidden agenda was revealed.
I will be taking this into consideration when voting in the November 2011 municipal election.
Sylvia Treptow, Grand Forks