A BoB Short
Despite new laws regulating the production of medical marijuana, including limiting grow ops to industrial areas, some jurisdictions remain unmoved in their opposition to the burgeoning industry. After six companies in Sudbury, Ontario applied for commercial licences to grow medical marijuana within the city, local police chief Paul Pedersen got a little, er, buzzed.
Pedersen told the CBC that more pot being grown within the city would mean more pot being smoked in the city “and that, of course, can result in all sorts of crimes — from retaliatory crimes to impaired by drugged driving crimes — and that is a workload pressure that we expect will come to our organization.”
Regardless, large-scale growers are already beginning to take over the formerly basement-run cultivation of medical marijuana. The new regulations, in effect as of April 1st, were implemented due to instances of theft and of growers selling excess plants illegally. Of the 30,000 growers licensed to grow medical marijuana in their own homes for personal use, some have been granted the right to continue doing so, while others have decided to take the issue to the Federal Court, claiming that the new laws are “unconstitutional,” as they no longer have control of how their medicine is grown, or the price of it.
While a reversal in policy seems unlikely, other former home-growers, both legitimate and underground, have taken the new large-scale grow ops as an opportunity. In March, a new operation in Nanaimo, BC, Tilray, received over 400 applications, many of which cited home growing as experience.
— Drew McLachlan
