Pubdate: Sat, 25 Apr 2015
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2015 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Authors: Ian Bailey and Sunny Dhillon
Page: S3

VANCOUVER MAYOR WAVES OFF HEALTH MINISTER'S WARNING ABOUT DISPENSARIES

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson has rejected a warning from the 
federal Health Minister to scrap a proposal to regulate marijuana dispensaries.

The proposal would create a new class of business licence for the 
operations while imposing hefty fees and restricting where they can be located.

"The city's approach right now is a common-sense one to deal with 
regulating the proliferation - we have over 80 of these dispensaries 
and they exist because of the federal landscape and the actions taken 
or not taken by the federal government," Mr. Robertson told reporters 
on Friday after a regional mayors' meeting in Burnaby, B.C.

The number of marijuana dispensaries in Vancouver has ballooned to 
more than 80, up from about 20 just a couple of years ago. That rapid 
expansion has happened without much interference from the city or its 
police force.

The city has said it had no choice but to regulate dispensaries due 
to the federal government's inaction on the issue.

Mr. Robertson's comments came hours after Health Minister Rona 
Ambrose, visiting the Lower Mainland, repeated her warning from a 
letter to the mayor this week urging him to back away from the plan.

Mr. Robertson said access to medical marijuana is "a real issue" for 
Vancouver, suggesting the proposal would help the city deal with 
problems such as unauthorized access and proliferation. The plan is 
to be discussed at a city council meeting next week.

"As a city, we just can't let these shops be everywhere all over 
town. And certainly we don't want them close to schools. We don't 
want access for kids to be as easy as it has been. So we're taking 
some steps, looking at a public hearing to consider those in the days 
ahead and we want to be sure, first and foremost, that kids are not 
getting access as we've seen in the past."

Ms. Ambrose was blunt in her remarks Friday. "I would just say to 
him, 'Don't do it,' " Ms. Ambrose told reporters in a 
question-and-answer session after a presentation on immunization.

Ms. Ambrose said Vancouver should instead shut down the dispensaries 
because they are illegal under federal law. She drew a distinction 
between the Vancouver dispensaries and what she described as the 
strict, regulated regime of the federal system, which was a response 
to court decisions that said patients must have reliable access to 
medical marijuana.

"At the end of the day, legitimizing this kind of commercial 
operation, selling marijuana on the street is normalizing it. I think 
that's a bad message for young people. When you normalize something, 
the message is that it is normal, that it is okay and that it is 
safe. It is not safe for kids to smoke marijuana."

Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.'s provincial health officer, said Vancouver 
is taking "sensible" measures under the circumstances. He said it is 
better to have marijuana in a regulated environment, even if it is an 
illegal product, "than to have people skulking around the back 
streets where cannabis is sold."

Murray Rankin, the federal NDP health critic, said in an interview 
that Ms. Ambrose appeared to be playing politics with the issue ahead 
of this fall's federal election to appeal to and consolidate a 
Conservative base opposed to harm reduction.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom