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Budding issues as pot set to become legal

Marijuana legalization brings host of challenges
bc tweed
Victor Krahn and Hillary Black at the BC Tweed greenhouse in East Delta.

Even though Canadians will be able to legally smoke a joint come next Wednesday, the City of Delta is still grappling with how to deal with the potential repercussions of the legalization of marijuana. From growing to selling to policing, there are a host of challenges facing the city as we enter uncharted territory.

 

Farmland

Like it or not, the federal government is set to legalize recreational cannabis and Delta could find itself declared as the country’s marijuana growing capital.

At least four greenhouses, including three large-scale operations, are converting to the lucrative crop. With sales in Canada projected to be in the billions, they and others partnered with cannabis companies while applying to the federal government to grow medical marijuana, which is already legal, in advance of full legalization of recreational pot.

Facilities like Village Farms in East Ladner, which now calls itself Pure Sunfarms, and SunSelect in East Delta, now called BC Tweed, represent millions of square feet of space no longer growing peppers, tomatoes and other produce.

“You look at this payroll tax they [the provincial government] will implement and then you look at things like the carbon tax, and then the payroll is going up, so it’s becoming very difficult, especially since you’re not just competing in Canada,” Village Farms founder and CEO Michael DeGiglio said earlier this year while explaining why the greenhouse made the switch.

“The unique thing about cannabis, from a farmer perspective, as long as it’s legal, is that we’d be competing with only other cannabis growers in Canada. We’re not competing with NAFTA and four dollars per day labour in Mexico, where they don’t pay carbon tax or health tax.”

Growing marijuana has renewed the food security debate, but the city’s zoning bylaws can’t stop the practice as they’re considered a farm operation in the Agricultural Land Reserve. Delta council had been hoping to keep the operations within industrial zones, having approved one on Annacis Island, but it looks like that’s not going to happen.

According to Delta staff, the city has received 46 inquiries from potential growers over the last four years and continues to field them on a regular basis.

Delta has stated its opposition to growing cannabis on farmland, concerned legalization will encourage even more production, and continues to lobby in that regard along with Metro Vancouver, but it remains to be seen if the province changes its position.

One issue that’s already arisen is the pungent smell coming from greenhouses, prompting both the city and Metro Vancouver to examine what can be done.

“Regulating these facilities has proven challenging due to the interpretation that these facilities are considered a ‘farm use’ and are therefore protected by the provincial Right to Farm Act,” a Delta report states.

 

weed
One issue that’s already arisen is the pungent smell coming from greenhouses. - file

 

Stores

In a pre-emptive move, Delta council approved a bylaw amendment banning the growing and sale of medical and non-medical cannabis in all zones, although the province shot down that rule for the ALR, and it remains to be seen if or where a dispensary will be allowed to open.

The city wasted no time going after a dispensary that tried to set up shop in North Delta a couple of years ago.

The Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries recently asked Delta to support private retail but that’s unlikely, given Delta’s position, which opposes private dispensaries, although the city has indicated support for online and government-run stores.

The province has given local governments zoning control over dispensaries, which means anyone wanting to set up shop to sell weed would have to go to council for approval. The same would apply to any proposed government stores.

There’s still no word on when, or if, a retail store will open in Delta.

 

Legislation

Delta council amended the city’s smoking regulations this summer to include cannabis. Smoking the stuff will be prohibited in places similar to where alcohol consumption is prohibited, which is more restrictive than tobacco limitations.

In addition to prohibiting the smoking of cannabis everywhere that the smoking of tobacco is prohibited, the new regulation also prohibits cannabis on highways, streets and other places open to public use, such as sidewalks and boulevards.

Provincial regulations, meantime, include the minimum age to purchase at 19, while adults can only possess up to 30 grams of cannabis in a public place.

Adults are permitted to grow up to four cannabis plants per household, but the plants must not be visible from public spaces off the property, and home cultivation will be banned in homes used as daycares. Delta is opposed to any home grows.

“There was a decision by the federal government – and the courts saw it the same way - that people should be allowed to cultivate in their own home,” said Delta police Chief Neil Dubord. “It was our belief that once it is legalized for both recreational and medical use there would be no access problems and you could eliminate the need for home cultivation.”

 

village farms
Village Farms in East Ladner is one of the local greenhouses that has converted to marijuana in anticipation of a lucrative recreational market. - file

 

Policing

Speaking of policing, the city has a plethora concerns, including those with micro-processing licences being ripe for rip-offs. Those with a micro-processing licence can cultivate up to 600 kilograms per year. And while individuals in their homes will be allowed to grow only four cannabis plants at a time, Dubord noted it will be extremely difficult to monitor and enforce home operations that decide to grow more.

Home operations could also leave themselves open for violent rip-offs. Dubord pointed to an example this year of someone with a licence to grow medical pot in a Tsawwassen home being ripped off.

In a submission to government last fall, Dubord, on behalf of the B.C. Association of Municipal Chiefs of Police, warned that police resources could be stretched. The association asked for the prohibition of home‐grown and personally cultivated cannabis in B.C.

He also warned that organized crime has infiltrated the medical marijuana regime and criminals will look for opportunities to exploit the legal retail market. If the public does not have reasonable access to legal cannabis, organized crime with fill the void, he said.

As far as taxation revenues to cover the cost of policing and enforcement, at the recent Union of B.C. Municipalities convention members passed a resolution to request a 40 per cent share of cannabis excise tax from the provincial government.

As far as testing those who may be driving stoned, the Delta Police Department will wait to use a federally approved drug testing device, the Draeger DrugTest 5000. DPD say they plan to roll out the device slowly in 2019.

“We will continue to enforce impaired driving through our programs and what we are currently doing, so I want to be clear about that,” Dubord recently said.

At a Delta police board meeting, Supt. Kelly Young said a lot of the challenges the department will and is facing involve education.

“A lot of people don’t understand the effects of marijuana and how long it stays in your system. B.C. and Canada have some of the highest THC in the world. Back in the day the THC was very low, a few percent, now it’s up to 15 to 20 per cent,” said Young.

“Right now 26 per cent of people are using it for recreational purposes, but once it becomes legal, probably about another 20 per cent will try, so we will have over 50 per cent of the population using, so education is going to be a big part.”