Last month, for the first time in Vancouver's history, police raided a medical marijuana dispensary within the city limits. During the raid, for reasons unknown, members of the VPD drug squad destroyed some expensive property.
When cops came busting through the door at iMedikate's Renfrew St. location and arrested the 60-year-old manager, they didn't ask her to open the non-profit group's large, $2000 safe or the door to the office upstairs.
Though police confiscated the manager's keys, they decided to kick down the locked office door and completely destroy the dispensary's safe. Read more »
In the first of its kind in the city since medical marijuana dispensaries began opening about 15 years ago, Vancouver police conducted a raid on the storefront location of a med-pot supplier on Tuesday, seizing cannabis and computers and arresting the 60-year-old manager.
Several undercover and uniformed VPD officers stormed the Renfrew Street location of the iMedikate dispensary on February 21 and informed the manager that she was "under arrest for trafficking." Read more »
My husband is dealing with dementia, and has been for the last 12 years. He is quite aware of where dementia takes a person.
I have his general practitioner's and specialists' approval to allow him to use medical marijuana.
I would not want to be facing what he faces every day. Would you?
I applied on his behalf through the federal government for a license to have a supply. I told them that B.C. Compassionate Club in Vancouver would be his supplier - but that is not a satisfactory source with the federal government. I must buy through them, grow my own or find someone with a license to grow for me.
I did not have a secure place to grow, nor the inclination to do so. How do I find someone to grow for me? Just put an ad in the local paper? It is not like growing tomatoes. There are rip-off artists, some armed, who would like some extra marijuana locally. Read more »
The former clients of a Langley medical marijuana dispensary raided by RCMP last month are organizing a petition and campaign to have it re-opened.
“People should be able to access medicine that has been prescribed by their doctor,” said Dan Mackle, who was the first client of the dispensary, which ran for about 11 months in Langley City on Fraser Highway.
Randy Caine, the local business owner who opened and operated the dispensary, was licensed by Health Canada to supply marijuana to three clients, but had about 150 active members when it was raided in July.
Police seized pot and baked goods along with some cash.
Now Mackle and others from among the former clients are seeking names on a petition asking Langley City to allow a dispensary to re-open as an official pilot project. Read more »
A former RCMP officer living with severe multiple sclerosis is suing the Mounties and Health Canada for damages suffered after his former colleagues raided his medical marijuana nursery.
Carlos (Cam) Cavaco, 50, and his wife Marnie O'Neil, who also acts as his sole caregiver, on Thursday filed a B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit alleging that on two separate occasions, less than eight months apart, their medicinal pot plants were destroyed by Sooke RCMP.
The lawsuit says the ensuing stress left them spiritually and emotionally shaken, their health deteriorated and their finances in ruin.
"Health Canada has bullied our physicians, provided irresponsible guidelines and put patients in legal limbo," O'Neil complained in an interview.
"There are gaps in the system that cause people like us to suffer. Worse, these problems combined with police discrimination against our medicine creates an environment where people are harassed, their property and medicine is destroyed and their health is compromised." Read more »
The manager of a Vancouver medical marijuana dispensary has offered help to the people trying to resurrect a similar dispensary in Langley.
Well-known marijuana activist Dana Larsen said assistance from the Vancouver Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary could include loans of money and marijuana on credit to re-establish the Langley Medical Marijuana Dispensary that was closed down following a July 19 raid by the Langley RCMP.
“Our dispensary has donated medicine and cash to other dispensaries that get into legal trouble,” Larsen told The Times.
The Vancouver dispensary has also offered help to the recently-raided North Island Compassion Club dispensary in Comox.
The Vancouver Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary has been operating since 2008
Like the Langley dispensary, the Vancouver facility has far more clients than the two-per-legal-grower limit allowed under current Canadian law.
But unlike Langley, the Vancouver dispensary has been able to operate without police interference.
Larsen said Vancouver authorities are generally more “enlightened” about marijuana and other drug issues than other Lower Mainland communities. Read more »
Burnaby's medical marijuana dispensary is still signing up members after being raided by the Burnaby RCMP last week.
Burnaby's first medical marijuana dispensary opened on April 15 at 4927 Kingsway.
"The doors are still open," said Dana Larsen, a director with the Metrotown Medicinal Society, on Wednesday. "We're still doing what we can to help people."
However, the society is unable to provide patients with medical marijuana as part of the bail conditions set after three people were arrested in the raid last Thursday, he said.
"We're hoping to provide medicine in the future," Larsen added. Read more »
"It's good to have a poop now," said Craig Pirart when asked what medical marijuana has done to help him.
He's on about $900 per month of presciption drugs, including heavy duty pain meds to deal with a broken hip eight years ago that led to 10 surgeries and finally amputation of his right leg.
Without the $90-100 of medical marijuana he was able to obtain each month through the Langley Medical Marijuana Dispensary, the 52-year-old former heavy equipment operator will be faced with having to double his prescription drug use.
The dispensary was raided by the RCMP on July 19. Iits pot varieties were seized along with baked goods containing marijuana. (See Pot dispensary owner wants to talk, Langley Advance, July 28.)
No charges have been laid against owner Randy Caine who held a townhall meeting Aug. 2 to ask the community for input. Read more »
I am writing in response to the recent shutdown of the Metrotown Medicinal Marijuana Dispensary.
There has been a new wave of these shutdowns by the RCMP in B.C. since June.
Unless someone needs to use medical marijuana dispensaries for their medicine, they may not understand the importance of having them available to us, the patients.
Unless they have been prescribed opiates for long term usage, they cannot understand the anxiety of waking up in the morning and not knowing what day it is or where they are. Sure, these moments are momentary but they cause great anxiety and stress.
The simple things like writing a letter to a friend become so challenging as you sit in front of the computer and try to figure out what to do next.
Try making yourself a meal to eat and forgetting it’s in the oven. Some may say they’ve done that before, but I can bet it wasn’t on a daily basis.
Try going to bed and forgetting to lock the doors—or not—but getting up seven or eight times just to make sure.
I’m sure you haven’t cried in pain as you try to go about your morning bathroom duties because the opiates are destroying your kidneys. Or spent hours vomiting your dinner because now the opiates have attacked your liver. Read more »
Why has the Metrotown Medicinal Society been raided by the RCMP when they—and the mayor of Burnaby —visited the establishment around its opening and gave their approval?
I do not pay taxes so that our law enforcement can arrest people for providing and/or consuming one of the most beneficial plants we are blessed to have.
I suspect the push comes from the federal government, who we all know has a certain religious ideology.
Now they are trying to demonize individuals who use cannabis. They need people to fill up all the prisons they’ve been building I guess. They’ve been trying to take away the tolerant attitude that Canadians are known for having towards marijuana use and start a Canadian version of America’s failed “War on Drugs.”
Harper may represent the views and values of the people who voted him in, but he does not represent the views of the majority of Canadians.
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Last month, for the first time in Vancouver's history, police raided a medical marijuana dispensary within the city limits. During the raid, for reasons unknown, members of the VPD drug squad destroyed some expensive property.
In the first of its kind in the city since medical marijuana dispensaries began opening about 15 years ago, Vancouver police conducted a raid on the storefront location of a med-pot supplier on Tuesday, seizing cannabis and computers and arresting the 60-year-old manager.
By Matthew Claxton, Langley Advance
By Dan Ferguson - Langley Times
By. D. Williams
