Steve Blacklock says Comox needs more housing, quicker to address affordability issues

Steve Blacklock says Comox needs more housing, quicker to address affordability issues

Steve Blacklock considers housing affordability the top priority for Comox Council  |  George Le Masurier photo

Steve Blacklock says Comox needs more housing, quicker to address affordability issues

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Steve Blacklock says he was always going to run for council. It was just a matter of when.

“I thought about it four years ago and had my eye on next October until this by-election opportunity came up,” he told Decafnation.

Comox will hold a by-election on Saturday, Nov. 27 to fill the seat vacated by Partick McKenna, who recently relocated to Nova Scotia.

Blacklock filed nomination papers on Oct. 19 for the open council seat “to make a difference” in the community where he was born and raised.

“I’m a community person, a small-town guy with an eight-year-old daughter, so I’m invested in the next generation and beyond,” he said. “I would hope anyone who really knows me would support me. I’ve been meeting people who like what I stand for, which is simply a love of Comox.”

He envisions continued growth for the town and believes he can help manage it properly. And he says that growth is already shifting the town’s demographics toward a younger population.

“I see the future of Comox like trying to squeeze an orange through a straw. What’s on the other side without the post-war generation?” he said.

 

HIS TOP PRIORITY: MORE HOUSING

Blacklock’s prediction of the town’s growth meshes with his career in property valuations.

After earning a certificate in Real Property Valuation at UBC he worked for BC Assessments before returning to the Comox Valley in 2006 to join Jackson and Associates doing a wide range of property valuation and consulting work specializing on the Powell River and Sunshine Coast areas.

So it’s no surprise that he sees housing affordability as the top issue confronting the Town of Comox and its residents.

“This is a huge issue that stretches beyond the purview of the Comox Council,” he said. “But the solution is to create more supply and that’s something the council has the ability to affect.”

He believes the town should streamline its development application process and make clearer rules around infill and rezoning.

“We need more housing and quicker,” he said.

He would also like to see the town set clear minimums and maximums on housing density and says the developers he knows would like that, too.

“Why is every rezoning application an open-ended negotiation?” he said.

Blacklock points to the Aspen Road development where the town made a trade-off to allow the developer to add more density in exchange for including some below-market units and 26 daycare spaces.

“If I had been on council, I would have negotiated for more amenities from the developer before giving more density,” he said.

He notes that there are “zero” vacant lots for sale in the town and that it has taken 15 years to approve the development of Northeast Comox due to issues around stormwater runoff. But now, he says, the Northeast properties are zoned R1.1 that requires minimum lot sizes of 0.16 acres (between one-eighth and one-quarter acres).

“That’s too big,” Blacklock says. “Comox and other communities can no longer afford to allow large houses on large lots. We need more density than that.”

He wonders how municipalities went from post-war bungalows to 3,500 square-foot houses for two or three people. Instead, he supports the land use framework promoted by Smart Growth BC.

And while the “die is cast” for development of the Northeast Woods and the loss of some trails because it was long ago included in the town’s urban growth area — “we can’t claw that back” — he says the Town Council can still control the size of the lots and housing on them.

He says the council should increase the density in the Northeast Woods to as many units as possible and require those developing the area to include an integrated trail network and other outdoor recreation amenities.

 

OTHER CAMPAIGN ISSUES

Blacklock says his second top priority is to promote more outdoor recreational opportunities for young people.

Lamenting that so many kids today seemed locked into a digital world, he would like to encourage more outdoor opportunities, such as a skate park or bike park. He says there was a skate park proposed many years ago and never built at the corner of Aspen and Bolt.

He has also heard from senior citizens about a need for more daytime activities, such as a larger seniors center.

He’s also concerned about the status of garbage removal and recycling within the town.

“Why can’t our waste removal contractor stick to a regular schedule with on-time pick up on the same day each week?, He told Decafnation. “It’s clear our residents need a new purpose-built recycling center to bring their recycling and organic waste to.”

When asked about the Mack Laing trust agreement controversy, Blacklock says he was told not to comment on the issue. When asked who told him that, he said he believed it was Comox Chief Administrative Officer Jordan Wall.

He pointed out he has not been privy to in-camera council discussions or discussions with town staff on this long-running controversy.

 

REGIONAL GROWTH STRATEGY ISSUES

Blacklock says the next term for Comox elected officials is particularly important because it will include updating the town’s Official Community Plan and participating in a similar update of the Regional Growth Strategy (RGS).

“I want to help reach people who don’t normally engage in these kinds of policy processes,” he said. “Otherwise the agenda gets driven by a small number of the most passionate people. We are all in this together. We need to hear from every citizen.”

He points to conflicts that exist within the RGS between current zoning and the kind of smart growth we need in the future. An example of that type of conflict was highlighted over 3L Developments unsuccessful Riverwood subdivision proposal.

“3L could develop their land according to existing zoning (10-acre residential lots), but that isn’t the kind of housing we want,” he said. “But we denied their greater density proposal because it wasn’t identified as one of the three future settlement expansion areas.”

And while Blacklock favors protecting the Stotan Falls river area, he acknowledges that sprawl is not efficient growth.

 

OPPOSED TO PARTY POLITICS

Blacklock says he finally decided to run in the Nov. 27 by-election after hearing about the Oct. 12 rally by a local group calling itself the Comox Greens, where BC Green Party leader Sonia Fustenneau spoke on behalf of candidate Jonathan Kerr.

“I fundamentally oppose party politics at the municipal council table,” he told Decafnation. “The Comox Greens is a registered elector organization and has sponsored their star candidate. I think our town deserves better.”

Asked about his own endorsements, Blacklock said there is no organized group supporting him. He said former mayor Paul Ives and current councillor Ken Grant are supporting him and that former council member Patti Fletcher has endorsed him.

“But I believe I would have their support anyway just because I’m a native son, a community person, not some doctor from Ontario,” he said.

Blacklock said he “would like to think or at least hope” that some of the current council members would have endorsed him if they had known he was running before endorsing Jonathan Kerr.

 

WHO IS STEVE BLACKLOCK?

Blacklock was born and raised in the Comox Valley and graduated from Highland High School. He is married and has an eight-year-old daughter.

He’s a charter member and current fundraising director of the Rotary Club of the Comox Valley, and an active volunteer with the We Can Shelter Society, Kidsport and Habitat4Humanity. And he’s a member of the Comox Valley Road (and Trail) Runners, Comox Valley Run to Beer Club, CV Rapids Junior Rugby and the Glacier Greens Golf Club.

In his professional life, Blacklock is a national board member of the Appraisal Institute of Canada (AIC) and a past president of the BC Association of the AIC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEVE BLACKLOCK

Age 46. Born and raised in the Comox Valley. Attended Highland High School, class of 1993

BA in Administration and Urban Geography from Simon Fraser University. Certificate in Real Property Valuation from University of British Columbia

Previously worked for Deloitte and Touche and BC Assessment. Currently employed at Jackson and Associates in Courtenay.

Endorsements:

“Steve Blacklock would bring a dynamic voice to Comox town council. Steve thinks for himself, and with measured thought and consideration is not afraid to speak his mind. Steve has what it takes.” — former Comox council member Patti Fletcher”

“Sometimes the right person comes around just at the right time, and I’m confident Steve would be an outstanding Councillor for the Town of Comox. I don’t know anyone else in the valley who is more plugged into the community, gives his time generously, and knows what makes it tick. Comox is changing in front of our eyes, and I believe Steve has the dedication, passion and unique ability to make everyone’s voice heard at the table.” Chris Morrison, co-owner, Church St. Taphouse

“I have known Steve Blacklock for over 30 years in the Comox Valley and strongly endorse his candidacy as a councillor for the Comox town council. Steve has a deep understanding of the issue and challenges facing this community. What he brings to the table is a high level of integrity, a devotion to community service and good honest down-to-earth common sense. I cannot think of a more ideal candidate for this position.” — Dr. Chris Bellamy, physician

 

ELECTION INFO

Election day is Saturday, Nov. 27 at Comox Recreation Centre

Advance voting will take place on Nov. 17, 20 and 24 at the Genoa Sail building in Marina Park

Mail-in ballots are available here

 

 

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Town of Comox spills raw sewage into Brooklyn Creek, doesn’t inform public

Town of Comox spills raw sewage into Brooklyn Creek, doesn’t inform public

Turbidity in Brooklyn Creek, with stormwater pipe creating a “waterfall” in the background. Kids sometimes play under this  |  Photos submitted by a Como resident

Town of Comox spills raw sewage into Brooklyn Creek, doesn’t inform public

By

Five months ago, I decided to take a break from publishing stories on Decafnation. It was a difficult decision because I enjoy journalism and there is such a dearth of enterprise reporting in the Comox Valley.

Several news events during this past half-year have tempted me to revive my regular reporting and commentary: Daniel Arbour’s bold and forward-thinking proposal about a future with fewer fossil fuel-powered vehicles and the recent federal election come to mind.

But today I stumbled onto a story that I couldn’t resist because it involves the ongoing degradation of local waterways by a municipality and a cadre of council members who chose to hide pertinent information from their constituents.

The story involves a major pollution event with potential public health concerns in the Town of Comox about which the public has not been informed.

One of the town’s sewage pipes recently broke and an unknown volume of raw sewage spilled into Brooklyn Creek, which flows through  Mack Laing Park and empties into the Comox Harbour. That created a health hazard for any children playing in the creek and at the creek’s Comox Bay estuary, and a potential lingering toxic environment for any returning fish this fall.

It also contributes to the contamination of shellfish in Comox Bay, which is under an ongoing harvesting ban.

None of the council members or town staff have discussed this sewage spill publicly or informed town residents. We couldn’t find any notice on the town’s website. And, of course, you won’t have read about it in any of the local media.

Decafnation reached out late afternoon Friday to Town Engineer Shelley Ashfield via email, who has not yet responded. We will update this story when and if Ashfield responds to our questions.

We asked Ashfield when and where the sewage break occurred and how the raw sewage could have flowed into Brooklyn Creek.

And it gets worse. On Thursday, the creek turned a milky brown color from somewhere south of Guthrie Road and covered the length of the creek to Comox Harbour. It appears, though this is not yet confirmed, that during mitigation measures following the raw sewage spill, the town dumped loads of gravel into the creek, stirring up sediment at the creek’s bottom and creating turbidity that took a long time to clear.

This also poses potential problems for wildlife.

We learned from a Comox resident that Kira Gallant of Environment Canada has an open file on issues regarding Brooklyn Creek and the Town of Comox. And that Dave Pridham, an officer with the BC Environment Ministry, is investigating both the raw sewage spill and the turbidity issue.

Decafnation has also learned that Brooklyn Creek Streamkeepers discovered dozens of dead salmon smolts along the waterway’s banks this summer. That could be linked to the fact the town discharges multiple stormwater drainage pipes into the creek, which diminishes its water quality, and also as a result of this summer’s heat domes created by climate change.

Suspected poor water quality in the creek has nearly wiped out healthy fish spawns in the creek in recent times. The creek’s headwaters begin in Courtenay, primarily Crown Isle, and pass through Area B en route to Comox, which creates a three-jurisdiction regulatory process. None of the three levels of government monitor the creek’s water quality.

The recent incident reinforces long-time concerns about the Town of Comox’s stormwater management practices. Decafnation published an intensive series of stories on this and related issues two years ago.

The town had ample warning that such a disaster could occur. But the town has ignored recommendations from multiple engineering consultants dating back more than two decades to upgrade its stormwater practices, including the building of detention ponds to filter toxic runoff before it enters sensitive waterways and regular collection of water quality data.

There is a pending BC Supreme Court case about the town’s handling of stormwater scheduled to begin next spring.

But Comox residents might question their elected council members why they didn’t inform the public about the raw sewage spill into the creek? Did they even know about the spill? If not, then who is providing oversight of town operations?

Some people believe the Town Council of Comox is the least transparent of all Comox Valley municipalities. You might think that council members heading into municipal elections in 2022 would be trying to change this perception.

This story has been updated to correct an error that Brooklyn Creek travels through Macdonald Wood Park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COMOX TOWN COUNCIL

Russ Arnott, Mayor: rarnott@comox.ca

Alex Bissinger: abissinger@comox.ca

Nicole Minions: nminions@comox.ca

Ken Grant: kgrant@comox.ca

Maureen Swift: mswift@comox.ca

Stephanie McGowan: smcgowan@comox.ca

 

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Vanier grad Jonathan Page builds cannabis science hub in Comox

Vanier grad Jonathan Page builds cannabis science hub in Comox

Jon Page in his Vancouver headquarters of Anandia Labs — submitted photo

Vanier grad Jonathan Page builds cannabis science hub in Comox

BY GEORGE LE MASURIER

These days, when he’s in a reflective mood, Jon Page looks up from the cannabis plants in his Vancouver laboratory, and wonders if he subconsciously saw it coming. “It” being the frenzied corporate rush to capitalize on Canada’s legalization of recreational cannabis that has made him wealthy.

He certainly didn’t see it coming as a young boy growing up with his twin brother, Nick, on Headquarters Road, where they dug around under logs for interesting plants to feed his as yet unrecognized drive for scientific discovery. And not even when he earned his PhD in botany at UBC in 1998.

Nor did he see it coming when he studied how chimpanzees use plants as medicine in Tanzania, or when he did post-doctoral studies of alkaloids in opium and cannabinoids in cannabis in Germany.

Page did not even see it in 2009 — consciously, at least — when he became the first scientist in the world to sequence the 30,000 genes in the cannabis genome.

He might have caught a glimpse of it when he and chemist John Coleman opened their own cannabis testing and research laboratory in 2013, called Anandia Labs, which grew under his leadership to a company valued at more than $60 million in just four years.

And it still wasn’t a clear vision in his mind when he picked Comox to construct the world’s first-ever facility focused solely on the breeding and genetics of cannabis.

But the cannabis gold-rush did come for him.

Three months ago, Edmonton-based producer Aurora Cannabis acquired Anandia for about $115 million in stock.

And yet, the excitement Page feels about legalization and his new role as Aurora’s chief science officer overseeing multiple cannabis labs around the world, is not rooted in monetary rewards. For him, legalization means he can finally pursue cannabis research without reproach or limitations.

What Aurora really acquired was Jonathan Page, PhD., Canada’s leading cannabis scientist.

In an article in BC Business magazine earlier this year, molecular geneticist Tim Hughes, a professor at the University of Toronto and Page’s co-researcher in the cannabis genome sequencing project, called Page “the man in Canada when it comes to cannabis.”

Early years in the Comox Valley

Jon and Nick Page were born in Victoria in 1969, but grew up on a large Headquarters Road property with their parents, Dave and Linda. They attended Tsolum Elementary, where Jon and a friend won an award for a science project.

Both brothers had an academic focus at Courtenay Junior and G.P. Vanier, from which they graduated in 1987. They always received top grades, and always made the honour role. Jon recorded one of the province’s top mark in Biology 12.

Jonathan Page, PhD

It was his parents’ interest in farming and growing plants that fueled Jon’s youthful exploration of the natural world, and it has stayed with him.

“We studied plants in an unfocused sort of way as kids,” Page told Decafnation. “We’d peel the bark off trees, turn over logs for mushrooms.”

One possible trigger for this interest came in the 1980s, when the Pages were 10-year-olds, and the Comox Valley had unexpectedly become the Canadian epicentre of the magic mushroom phenomena. The Headquarters Road and Tsolum River area was at the heart of the action.

“Long-hairs from Montreal and other places were camped in vans alongside most of the back roads,” Page said. “They snuck onto farmers’ fields to pick them (mushrooms). It got quite nasty.”

But the scene piqued Jon’s curiosity about why plants in their backyard were so important to people from all over the country. Since then, he’s been interested in plants used by people for a purpose, and the cultural and chemical stories behind them.

A serious focus on cannabis

After high school, Page earned a BSc degree in plant biology. As a 21-year-old undergrad, he was awarded a grant to study plant use by chimpanzees in Tanzania, and the resulting paper he published put him on the science world’s radar.

By the time Page completed a PhD in botany in 1998 at UBC, his papers had been published in several academic journals. And that helped him get a five-year National Sciences and Engineering Research Council grant to do post-doctoral studies in Germany on alkaloids in cannabis and opium.

Page returned to Canada in 2003 to run his own lab at the National Research Council’s Plant Biotechnology Institute in Saskatoon, where he worked on cannabinoid biochemistry and discovered several of the enzymes involved in producing cannabinoids like THC. The Page Lab published several seminal papers on this subject between 2008 and 2012.

Sequencing cannabis DNA

The big idea to sequence the cannabis genome came via email from a molecular biology professor at the University of Toronto that he did not yet know. Tim Hughes, who now holds the John W. Billes Chair of Medical Research, had the idea and was directed to Page as the person who could do it.

Page at his Vancouver Anandia Labs

But finding a legal place to obtain cannabis DNA proved difficult in 2009. At the NRC, Page was only allowed to study hemp. And the Saskatchewan Prairie Plant Systems, a source of plants for science, wouldn’t give him access.

Finally, a friend in Vancouver, who worked with an authorized medical marijuana patient, donated leaves from a popular strain called purple (or pink) kush, a plant known to have THC levels in the 16 percent to 18 percent range.

The sequencing took weeks and the computer analysis of that data took months, followed by more time to write the research paper, which their team published in 2011. Page had already established his reputation as a leading cannabis scientist at the NRC, but the success of the genome sequencing project put him out in front of cannabis science in Canada.

By 2013, Page had tired of the work at NRC and was frustrated with general cutbacks in research funding by the Stephen Harper government, and its refusal to support cannabis research in particular.

So Page quit the NRC, took an adjunct professor position at UBC, and teamed up with chemist John Coleman to co-found Anandia Labs in November of 2013.

“Thanks to the Harper Conservatives, I took the leap into business,” he said.

Page says Anandia — the name comes a cannabinoid called anandamide, a Sanskrit word that means “bliss” — on two pillars:

Testing — In the heady days of medical marijuana, Health Canada required producers to conduct quality assurance tests for potency, pesticide residues, toxins, moulds and other microbiological contaminants that could pose health risks for consumers.

Breeding and genetics — The pure science of discovering how a plant works in order to create improvements, such as resistance to disease and growth properties, and could generate revenue from intellectual property rights.

Comox Innovation Centre

“Where we are with cannabis today is where we were 100 years ago with tomatoes,” says Greg Baute, who, like Page, earned his PhD at UBC and will run the Comox facility as the director of breeding and genetics. “In 1918, we knew more about corn than we do about cannabis today.

“But, until now, there has been no breeding effort at the scale Jon Page has started.”

Plant Director of Breeding and Genetics Greg Baute, left, and Anandia Project Coordinator Nick Page, right, on site at the Comox Innovation Centre at Military Row and Knight Road

Baute said the facility will employ about 15 PhD- or MSc-level employees, about two-thirds of which will work on genetics and the other third on the operations and horticulture side.

The new 31,500 square-foot phase-one facility in Comox will do all of Anandia’s breeding and genetics, and provide feed stocks for more medical strains of cannabis exclusively for Aurora, but the science will ultimately benefit the whole industry.

The $20 million first phase includes a 21,000 square-foot greenhouse and a 10,500 square-foot office situated on seven acres on Military Road, near the Knight Road roundabout. Future phases will expand both the greenhouses and the labs.

For strict sanitary and disease control, there will be no public access and no public tours of the facility. Employees entering the greenhouses will have to strip down in change rooms and wear only approved uniforms to prevent introducing diseases or bugs into a tightly controlled environment.

Baute said the centre will focus on disease resistance and preventing mould, powdery mildew and other diseases and pathogens common in commercial cultivation.

The building’s plans reveal a complex network of seven independently controlled zones, each fitted with its own air scrubbers to filter out pollen and contaminants. The system is designed with ion and carbon filters to remove odour, and to not spread mildew outside the facility.

“It’s a threat,” Boute said. “Because the greenhouse provides the ideal environment for them to grow.”

Brother Nick says cannabis is an evolving new industry that, until recently, was focused on the production side.

“The science side of cannabis was missing,” Nick Page told Decafnation. “The goal of the Innovation Centre is to be a hub for cannabis science.”

Nick is the project coordinator for Anandia’s Comox facility. He is coordinating the planning, design, technical details and construction of the Comox facility. He has a masters degree in plant ecology, and works as an environmental biologist in Victoria, focused on urban ecology and integrating urban projects into ecological landscapes.

The centre will also focus on plant architecture; the size and shape of plants. It’s an unlikely, but critical area of interest.

Modern greenhouses used by licensed producers such as Aurora in Edmonton and Medicine Hat and Montreal span up to 1.5 million square feet, and use robotics to space plants as they grow larger, and move them from grow areas to processing sites. Robots maximize every square inch of grow space.

Why Comox?

Jon Page could have built his new breeding and genetics centre anywhere. In fact, he first considered the Delta and Richmond areas of the lower mainland. But when he discovered both municipalities would require zoning changes and public hearings to allow cannabis facilities, he looked elsewhere.

“Getting a development permit for warehouse space in the Lower Mainland where people are more suspicious of cannabis businesses would take way too long in the furious race to market that exists in the cannabis world,” he said.

Nick Page and Greg Baute go over building plans with their construction foreman from Heatherbrae Builders, of Nanaimo

Through Comox Valley realtor Jamie Edwards — a friend of people Page knew from growing up here — he discovered the Town of Comox had already zoned land for cannabis uses.

“Whoever in the town decided to include cannabis in the airport industrial area zoning as acceptable uses was thinking way ahead of the potential of this industry,” Nick Page said. “It was the key to bringing us here.”

Jon Page says Comox wasn’t a goal destination, just because he grew up here. But the zoning, an airport with direct flights to Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, the quality of life and affordable housing all factored into the decision.

Page said the ski hill, the mountain biking in Cumberland and other amenities will help Anandia Labs recruit the highly educated 20- and 30-year-olds he needs for the Comox Innovation Centre. And they are all well-paid jobs.

Centre Director Baute said he might not have accepted the position if it had been located in Vancouver.

“People don’t want to move to Vancouver anymore because the housing is expensive and the commutes are long,” Baute said.

And there was an additional positive factor in Page’s decision to pick Comox.

“More than a hometown connection, the Comox Valley is just more of a cannabis-friendly community,” Page said.

What’s next

Canada was the first country to authorize the medical use of marijuana, back in 2001. And Page was the first scientist to sequence the cannabis genome in 2011.

But despite these cutting-edge milestones, Canadian scientists were not allowed to stray far from narrowly-focused studies and enquiries than reflected current social norms. Canada is leading a lot of the medical science in cannabis, and Aurora’s labs will study that.

“Medical usage is not just stoners getting access to pot.” he said. “There are real benefits in neuropathic pain without the addictive properties of opiates, and help for anxiety, sleeplessness, MS and chronic pain.”

Legalization has changed that. It has bolted Canada to the forefront of cannabis research. It has given scientists like Page the freedom to probe the questions that its illegal status has raised but could not answer.

Did Page anticipate that would happen, or that the cannabis industry would explode at such a fast rate?

“Not consciously, but I must have seen it, or known it was important work,” he said. “I’m just a lab guy who saw an opportunity.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOME RANDOM FACTS ABOUT CANNABIS

CANNABIS — A member of the Cannabaceae family. Science is uncertain whether there are two species — cannabis sativa and cannabis indica — or three — adding cannabis ruderalis — or whether there’s only one: cannabis sativa. Indigenous to Central Asia.

CBD — A cannabinoid, like THC, but one that blocks or neutralizes the psychoactive effects of THC. This occurs when the CBD levels match or exceed THC levels in the plant. Being studied for therapeutic uses.

FLOWERS — The female cannabis plant produces flowers, which scientists need to research and develop. If a male plant pollinates the female plants, it will produce seeds, not flowers. So keeping male plants and pollen out of the facility is a top priority Except in breeding, where scientists rub the flower with pollen from a male plant to grow seedlings with unique characteristics.

GOLD RUSH — There are more than 60 publicly traded cannabis companies in Canada, and nearly 100 licensed cannabis producers — nearly a quarter of them in BC. They are all anxious to dominate the market. But while the focus four years ago was on cultivation, growing and production, it’s about retail and consumers today. And the focus is already shifting again toward being first to market with edible cannabis products. And the future focus will be on micro cultivation licenses to draw today’s lingering illicit growers into the legal system.

GROWING — The Cannabis Act allows adults to grow up to four plants per household. You may not sell the cannabis you grow at home.

HEMP — Jon Page discovered the single genetic switch that differentiates hemp, which has no THC, from cannabis, which does. Hemp plants are of the same species as cannabis, but while he was working at the NRC in Saskatoon he discovered hemp lacks a single gene that produces an enzyme that produces THC.

POPULAR — Before Oct. 17, 2018, cannabis was arguably the most popular illegal drug in Canada, and probably remains so around the world.

PREVIOUSLY LEGAL — Cannabis used to be legal and quite common. Before the early 1900s, cannabis was used in many medicinal tinctures. It wasn’t even listed on labels. The Opium Act of 1908 made cannabis illegal in Canada. It was effectively banned in the US buy the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937.

TERPENES — The chemical found in the trichomes of the cannabis plant, and which give cannabis its unique odour.

THC — A cannabinoid unique to cannabis plants that producess a psychoactive reaction. Technical name is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. It is found in the plant’s trichomes, tiny hairs on the flower and leaves of the plant. It is thought to be the plant’s defense against things that come to eat it. The plant’s seeds are key to its survival as a species, to propagate itself. The seeds are rich in fat and protein and are sought after, but the sticky, resinous THC is not palatable, and deters predators.

TRAVELING — It is illegal to take cannabis across the Canadian border, whether leaving or coming into the country.