I found the comments of Parksville’s mayor and police chief re: the Phoenix compassion club, really over the top and quite reactionary.
After all, there are hundreds if not thousands of compassion/harm reduction facilities all over North America where police chiefs and mayors have turned a blind eye and allowed them to help those in need.
In a way these two locals are really caught in a blind. In one way they want to shut down a facility that actually really helps a lot of people with a whole array of ailments, and in another way they (or at least the mayor) embrace a mega grow-op and all the following criminal activity that will bring about.
I can see the RCMP charging in and busting people in wheelchairs and maybe others barely alive and then imprisoning the kind gentleman who is actually truly helping them.
A year later, they will be cruising the industrial area to protect the mega grow-op from gangster rippers and others wanting access to the tons of marijuana.
Ten years ago, my son broke his neck snowboarding and became a severely handicapped quadriplegic with severe nerve pains and uncontrollable muscle spasms.
Though taking a litany of prescribed drugs, the only real drug that lessens his pains is THC from marijuana. It also relaxes those unwanted spasms.
For a while he had a designated grower, but that ended last spring with Health Canada changing the rules and his grower getting out of the business. He was then getting his pot from one of the many compassion facilities in Vancouver for $3-$5/gram.
He is on provincial disability and gets a little over $800/month, which is less than half the CRA poverty level for a single person. Now the projected cost of one gram of pot from the mega factories will be well over $10 and so really not helping those that are poor and in agony.
This whole process is in front of the courts right now and I hope that at least the Supreme Court will uphold the constitutional right of every individual to have access to medications that actually help them. Hopefully, Health Canada will eventually have provincial MSP cover the medical marijuana cost.
I think it’s high time all those benefiting from good cheap herb speak up and let the mayor and police chief know that they could’ve handled this more diplomatically and leave the compassion club alone.
Carl HahnQualicum Beach
