Not enough done to keep crime out of medical pot
The federal government is not doing enough to keep organized crime out of the medical marijuana business, B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said Thursday.
Farnworth was reacting to two recent Postmedia News stories about full-patch members of the Hells Angels being involved in medical pot in B.C.
This week, Postmedia reported that West Point Hells Angel Lukasz Cimoszko, who died recently of a suspected overdose, had a federal licence to grow medical cannabis despite allegations by the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office that he was involved in organized crime.
And in February, Postmedia revealed that longtime Vancouver Hells Angel Hal Porteous was offering on Instagram to help people obtain medical marijuana growing licences.
“We don’t want to see the involvement of organized crime in either medical cannabis or the recreational cannabis industry. This is clearly evidence that not-thorough-enough background screenings are being done by Health Canada on who is getting these licences,” Farnworth said. “There is absolutely no place for organizations like the Hells Angels in either recreational cannabis or medicinal cannabis.”
Farnworth said the federal government has promised reforms to the system within five years to help deal with organized crime infiltration.
“I think that is far too long. I think now with the legalization of recreational cannabis, there needs to be significant reform done on the medical cannabis side,” he said.
He said organized crime’s involvement in the production and sale of cannabis “is an area of concern for us at the provincial and local level.”
“It is frustrating that Health Canada does not seem to realize this, and I don’t know why,” Farnworth said. “There should be thorough background checks because they know that this whole system of medical cannabis is attracting organized crime like moths to a flame.”
Cimoszko was fighting a lawsuit filed by the director of civil forfeiture last year after the biker was stopped by Vancouver police and found to have 240 grams of marijuana, a machete and bundles of cash totalling $12,270 in his leased Corvette.
“Mr. Cimoszko did not have sufficient legitimate income to have acquired the money,” the suit said.
It noted that he got his licence in April 2013 under the Medical Marijuana Access Regulations.
At the time, Cimoszko’s business partner in a car import company, fellow West Point Hells Angel Larry Amero, was facing cocaine importation charges. The charges were stayed last year due to delays. But Amero has since been charged with conspiracy to kill two gang rivals.
Health Canada media relations officer Rebecca Purdy said in an email, “For privacy reasons, Health Canada cannot comment on whether an individual is authorized and registered to produce a limited amount of cannabis for their own medical purposes.”
Retired police biker expert Andy Richards, now CEO of Spire Secure Logistics, said the revelations about Cimoszko’s growing licence “certainly reflects poorly on Health Canada’s ability to regulate our national medical cannabis system. “When one full-patch HA member is able to obtain a personal production licence, and another has the ability to broker ‘pooled’ licences across Canada, one has to wonder how well regulators will be able to monitor and inspect aspects of the legal recreational cannabis system,” he said Thursday.