City of Richmond and MediJean Set Historical Medical Marijuana Precedent

RICHMOND, BC, Feb. 25, 2014 /CNW/ - The City of Richmond and MediJean underscored their positions as undisputed thought leaders in the new federal medical marijuana industry by setting a historical national precedent when Richmond's Council unanimously voted to pass MediJean's rezoning application through first reading. The process Richmond established might well define how every municipality in the country can work with a medical marijuana company to ensure the community's needs are best served.

In December 2013 Richmond's Council passed a strict bylaw banning all medical marijuana production and distribution facilities, forcing companies to go through a rigorous rezoning application process if they want to have the opportunity to operate within the city. This bylaw guarantees that Council is the final arbiter of whether and where a medical marijuana company can operate in the municipality, and gives the City the ability to judge all companies based on the values, ethics, and benefits they may bring to the community.

"Richmond is a municipality that takes its responsibility to their citizens seriously, they are not a distressed community - they are a successful City with a long history of welcoming innovation and have a track record of judging businesses on their merits, including being known to deny access to companies that do not meet their high standards. We have worked hard to gain their confidence," said Jean Chiasson, chief executive officer at MediJean. "These reasons, coupled with the fact that they have always nurtured pharmaceutical-class operations like ours, were the key criteria for us when we made the choice where we would establish our business."

MediJean believes the City of Richmond's vote is what the Hon. James Moore meant when he detailed that under the new medical marijuana regulations, municipal zoning laws would need to be respected, which will further enhance public safety. Furthermore, MediJean believes that the Government of Canada, specifically Health Canada should review the process that Richmond has undertaken in their effort to verify the right business partners are permitted into their community. "Health Canada should tell every municipality in the country to pick up the phone and call Richmond to find out how they worked with us to ensure their community was well served," said Chiasson. 

The City of Richmond and MediJean have been in discussions for over a year, going over every detail of MediJean's processes from top to bottom. The city has gone to extreme lengths to ensure every aspect of MediJean's procedures exceeded all health & safety, fire & rescue, law enforcement, and building code requirements. As well, they have ensured they are deeply versed in every component of MediJean's operations. Richmond and MediJean worked together to set the bar for other municipalities to follow when defining how best to work with responsible medical marijuana companies.

"The City of Richmond has gone above and beyond to protect the values of their constituents," said Anton Mattadeen, chief strategy officer at MediJean. "When we started planning our business following the Hon. Leona Aglukkaq's announcement in December 2012 that the medical marijuana laws in Canada would be changing, we wanted to place our facility in a prosperous community, one where we would earn the right to become a contributing member. We knew this meant we would have to go through a tough process, and it certainly has been tough. However, if you want to lead an industry, facing challenges and always ensuring that you are continuously raising standards are a part of the process, and that is what we have done."

MediJean is leading the rebirth of medical marijuana through a laser focus on research, quality and patient experience by implementing best practices here and around the world. Doctors and nurse practitioners will understand and safely prescribe it within a clinical framework, patients will have access to clean and affordable medicine, and research partners will help the company expand the frontiers of medical marijuana in the years ahead. To learn more about MediJean and their plan to lead this new industry visit www.medijean.com and signup for their regular updates. Doctors and nurse practitioners are encouraged to contact MediJean to arrange a discussion of their practices and/or a tour of their facility.

SOURCE: MediJean

Media:
Justin Ferguson / 1-800-267-8130

MediJean's corporate headquarters at:
1-844-277-2247
www.medijean.com
[email protected]