By Cam Fortems – Kamloops This Week
Former B.C. health minister Terry Lake is not the only former Kamloops and area politician involved in the soon-to-be legal marijuana business.
Former veteran Kamloops New Democrat MP Nelson Riis is helping to promote an app called Good 2 Drive that claims to be able to screen out drivers who are high or otherwise impaired.
READ MORE: Former health minister joins pot company
Users tap the app and a “60-90 second [test] determines the test taker’s cognitive alertness,” according to company material.
Riis said he become involved in promoting the app through his involvement in Atacama Resources, which was founded as a mining company but has moved into technology. He is listed as a company founder.
“It’s headed by other people who know what they’re doing,” Riis said with a laugh.
Good 2 Drive is promoting the app for drivers, parents and law enforcement as a tool to screen drivers ahead of legalization of marijuana.
Riis served as Kamloops MP for two decades, losing to Canadian Alliance candidate Betty Hinton in 2000.
Riis said his involvement with Atacama was as a junior mining firm. It began to look for revenues and pivoted to the technology sector.
Atacama is a penny stock trading on the U.S. pink sheets.
In 2009, Riis was fined by the B.C. Securities Commission and banned from public companies for two years for making unreasonable claims in the stock offering for Canadian Rockport Homes.
In August, Lake announced he had become vice-president of corporate social responsibility for Hydropothecary, a Quebec-based licensed marijuana producer.
