Pubdate: Mon, 01 Jun 2015
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Daphne Bramham
Page: A1

EASIER TO BUY A JOINT THAN A LOAF OF BREAD

Government: City's plan to regulate marijuana shops is a farce

My local dry cleaner is gone, replaced by one of the more than half
dozen "medical marijuana dispensaries" within a 10-minute walk from my
home.

In another neighbourhood, a friend says it's easier to get a joint
than buy a loaf of bread or a litre of milk.

At last count, Vancouver had 84 cannabis stores. There's one block in
Granville Street's entertainment district that has two.

There are so many pot shops along many of the main streets that it's
almost impossible to believe that cannabis is illegal in Canada.

Their signboards are set out on sidewalks. Their posters are on
utility poles. Some run ads in weekly newspapers.

There are so many of them and so many laws are being broken (including
the one that makes it illegal to advertise any drugs in Canada, even
Viagra) that the June 10 public hearing on Vancouver's plan to
regulate these pot shops seems farcical.

The city has been wilfully blind to the fourfold increase in these
shops during the past three years. And it continues to do nothing
about the open drug markets on both April 20 (4/20) and Canada Day,
a.k.a. Cannabis Day. All of these 84 shops are illegal. All are
selling illegal drugs supplied by illegal, unregulated producers -
part of B.C.'s underground industry that's estimated at between $4
billion and $7 billion.

Although the sale of medical marijuana is legal, the federal law
requires it to be delivered by mail by licensed, registered producers.
(Some registered users are still allowed to grow their own, pending
the outcome of several legal challenges.)

And while these shops purport to be selling medical marijuana, federal
law restricts medical marijuana use to end-of-life care or treatment
of severe pain or muscles spasms from multiple sclerosis, spinal cord
injury or disease, severe arthritis, epilepsy or nausea, pain or
weight loss from cancer, HIV/AIDS or anorexia.

It seems improbable there are enough Vancouverites who meet those
strict criteria.

It also seems improbable that someone suffering chronic pain or
lacking appetite is shopping for cotton candy or pizza-flavoured
cannabis edibles. It's more likely those are aimed at recreational
users and kids.

Canadian kids' cannabis use is already the highest in the world.
According to a 2013 UNICEF report, 28 per cent of Canadian youth had
used marijuana the previous year; six per cent of Grade 12 students
used it daily. The report's "good" news was that a decade earlier, 40
per cent of Canadian kids reported pot use.

Last month, city manager Penny Ballem made a presentation to council
recommending that Vancouver regulate these shops.

In it, Ballem - a medical doctor - quoted "research" that cannabis
provides relief from chronic pain, antiretroviral therapy-related
nausea, multiple sclerosis, symptoms of bipolar disorder, ADHD as well
as "harm reduction for drug users" as a substitute for more harmful
drugs, to reduce opioid mortality and relief from withdrawal symptoms.

But most of those claims are unproven, according to Dr. Evan Wood,
medical director for addiction services at Vancouver Coastal Health
and Providence Health Care.

"Medical cannabis is the victim of a lack of research," he
said.

Wood supports the city's plan to regulate the dispensaries. But he
notes that the edible products sold in many dispensaries are a
"totally different thing" from dried cannabis that is smoked and are
"very, very dangerous."

It's extraordinary to think that this city's leaders ever thought that
it was a good thing to have illegal stores operating without business
licences selling illegal drugs supplied by illegal, unregulated growers.

Now, it's clear the genie is not easily going back in the
bottle.

Nearly two-thirds of the existing shops don't comply with the proposed
regulations because of proximity to schools, community centres,
neighbourhood houses and other pot-related businesses.

So what do the city's leaders hope to accomplish by selling permits to
illegal businesses? Move them to other neighbourhoods?

Because it's pretty clear that city staff, at least, aren't aiming to
get rid of the approach that Ballem says "strikes a balance."

Right now, this plan looks a lot like the much-vaunted Four Pillars
drug strategy that was promoted by the city as a "coordinated,
comprehensive approach" based on the four principles of harm
reduction, prevention, treatment and enforcement.

After a decade, that plan still totters on the single pillar of harm
reduction because there has never been a sustained commitment or the
money for the other three.
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MAP posted-by: Matt