B.C. Views Political spotlight falls on Cummins. p6
$1 million for Fraser River parks, trails. p3
THE NEWS
Arts&life Dark woods and dragons. p23
www.mapleridgenews.com Wednesday, April 11, 2012 · Serving Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows · est. 1978 · 604-467-1122 · 50¢
Soccer merger voted down Friends of Golden Ears want questions answered
Bunny ears
by R o b e r t M a n g e l s d o r f staff reporter
Rinto Sudiyama (centre), 4, reaches to pet a bunny from the Pitt River 4-H Rabbit Club after the annual Pitt Meadows Lions’ Club Easter egg hunt Sunday at Harris Road Park.
The planned merger of two local soccer clubs fell through last week after members of one side voted it down. Golden Ears United and Pitt Meadows soccer clubs were to combine to form West Coast Auto Group FC. It would have had close to 4,000 participants and more than 300 teams, making it the largest community soccer club in the province. At a special meeting last Wednesday, parents calling themselves the Friends of Golden Ears Soccer voted against a motion that would have seen the local club dissolve and transfer its assets to West Coast Auto Group FC. Mike Smith, a parent and coach with GEUSC, helped to found Friends of Golden Ears Soccer after questions about finances and structure of the new club went unanswered. See Soccer, p12
See slideshow @ mapleridge news.com. Colleen Flanagan/ THE NEWS
Grow op busts cut in half Mounties suspect Health Canada licenses behind drop by M o n i s h a M a r t i n s staff reporter
S
tore not silent after rash of thefts. See story, p16
Marijuana busts in Maple Ridge dropped by half in the span of a year, according to statistics from Ridge Meadows RCMP, who suspect a proliferation of Health Canada licenses is to blame for the decrease. Year-end figures show police
took down 34 grow operations in Maple Ridge in 2011 compared to 63 in 2010, while Pitt Meadows, where an electrical safety inspection program and bylaw to prohibit designated-growing are in place, saw three grow ops searched in 2011 and one in 2010. The RCMP officer in charge of the Ridge Meadows detachment believes Health Canada licenses, which allow people to grow marijuana legally, are contributing to the significant drop. Supt. Dave Walsh doesn’t have
the numbers or evidence to prove his suspicions, but he’s seen illegal grow operations in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows turn into legal ones in Walsh recent years. He estimates that 80 per cent of the illegal growers from before now
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have Health Canada licenses. “That’s my opinion. Is it something I can confirm? I don’t have the hard data to confirm that.” As of Oct. 30 – 12,225 people hold an “authorization to possess” dried marijuana license under the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations in Canada. Of those, 7,277 people hold a “personal use production license,” while 2,163 more hold a “designated-person” license, which allows someone else to grow their marijuana. See Licenses, p3
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