Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jan 2016
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2016 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Mike Hager
Page: A8

MARIJUANA INDUSTRY WANTS ILLICIT DISPENSARIES SHUT DOWN

A trade group representing most of Canada's licensed marijuana 
growers is calling on the federal government to curb the ongoing 
surge in illegal pot shops, which began in Vancouver and has now 
spread to Toronto.

Reacting to news that Canada's largest city now has 40 dispensaries 
and could see more than 100 by this spring, the Canadian Medical 
Cannabis Industry Association is asking Ottawa to stop the rise of 
illegal marijuana stores, which operate outside the strict 
regulations that its commercial-scale producers must respect.

"The federal government needs to step in and tell everybody what are 
the freaking rules," association spokesman Cam Battley told The Globe 
and Mail on Thursday.

"Is it legal or is it not? And if it is, can we stop following the 
regulations that we're under for quality control and proper 
labelling? Can we start using the same pesticides that the 
dispensaries' grow-ops use?"

The face-to-face sale of cannabis products is illegal because these 
stores procure and sell their products outside Health Canada's 
licensed medical-marijuana system. That system was overhauled in 2014 
and now allows about 20 industrial-scale growers to mail their 
products directly to patients who have doctors' prescriptions.

Until now, the growth of dispensaries has generally been concentrated 
in Vancouver and Victoria, where they have flourished as local 
governments and police have decided regulating - not raiding - is the 
best way to deal with them.

Last week, rookie MP Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief, was 
tapped to oversee a federal provincial task force that will create a 
framework for legalizing and regulating the recreational use of the drug.

He told The Globe this week-that the eventual system will involve "a 
strict regulatory regime" that ensures cannabis products are 
unadulterated. Experts predict it could take up to two years before 
recreational use of the drug is legal.

Ian McLeod, a spokesman for the B.C. Ministry of Justice, said it is 
too early to comment on timelines, but until cannabis is legalized, 
local authorities "must be able to make their own decisions about 
local enforcement priorities."

"[Dispensaries] sell untested products that may be unsafe and of 
particular risk to kids," he said in an e-mailed statement. "They are 
supplied by illegal growers.

"These are exactly the concerns that the government's plans will address."

Meanwhile, the lack of clear regulations and enforcement perpetuates 
the unfair playing field for the licensed producers, who have sunk 
millions of dollars into the highly secure growing facilities and 
quality-control processes mandated by Health Canada's 
medical-marijuana regime, Mr. Battley argued.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom