Pubdate: Tue, 19 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: S1

HEALTH MINISTER TO PUSH FOR POT REFORMS

Terry Lake Set to Lobby Federal Counterparts This Week for Revisions 
to System, Including Face-To-Face Sales at Pharmacies and Kiosks

British Columbia's Health Minister says he will use meetings with his 
provincial and federal counterparts this week in Vancouver to push 
for recreational marijuana to be sold in locations that are strictly 
regulated and inspected, such as special kiosks at liquor stores.

Terry Lake also said the federal medical marijuana system should be 
reformed to include face-to-face sales in outlets such as pharmacies 
instead of limiting it to the current mail-order system, though he 
said dispensaries - which are flourishing in cities such as Vancouver 
and Toronto - should not be involved.

The oncoming legalization of marijuana will be on the agenda when 
ministers start two days of meetings this Wednesday, two weeks after 
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.

That process could take up to two years and, in the meantime, Mr. 
Lake said it's important for politicians and public-health officials 
to focus on two things: making the drug harder for young Canadians to 
get and enforcing strict quality controls, as Health Canada does now 
under its existing medical marijuana regime.

"We have an opportunity on the medical side to improve the system, as 
well as we do on the recreational side," he said.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when you are taking a 
product like this and making it legal."

Dipika Damerla, Ontario's associate minister of health, said in an 
e-mailed statement that she is looking forward to discussing the 
issue and stands by Premier Kathleen Wynne's endorsement of selling 
cannabis in liquor stores. Ms. Wynne said last month that legalized 
marijuana sales through government liquor stores "makes sense," 
arguing they would do the best job of ensuring the drug is sold responsibly.

A month after last fall's federal election, Manitoba Premier Greg 
Selinger first posited such stores would be a good fit.

In B.C., the union representing workers in government liquor stores, 
as well as an industry group representing private stores, have also 
called for marijuana sales in their shops.

Mr. Lake said he would rather recreational pot be sold at these 
government or private stores in place of dispensaries, because they 
have a proven track record of enforcing age limits.

However, he said there are real public-health concerns about placing 
bud next to beer. That means, at the very least, such stores should 
be strictly licensed and inspected and cannabis should be sold at "a 
separate pharmacy-type counter."

Perry Kendall, B.C.'s provincial health officer, said it would be 
hard to allow those under 21 to buy liquor in one store but prohibit 
them from purchasing pot in that same shop if a higher age limit is 
imposed on marijuana sales, as some public-health experts are recommending.

Mr. Lake said his government lobbied Health Canada to allow stores to 
sell medical marijuana before it overhauled the rules in 2014 to 
switch from small-scale growers to a handful of commercial producers 
who mail their products directly to patients who have doctors' prescriptions.

Mr. Lake said he could envision a system where patients needing 
medical cannabis can buy from existing producers through pharmacies 
offering products with high levels of CBD - the compound credited 
with marijuana's therapeutic effects - and low levels of THC - pot's 
psychoactive compound. Conversely, consumers craving a recreational 
high would flock to stores selling cannabis with an opposite mix of 
the two compounds, he said.

He praised the new federal Liberal government's commitment to 
legalizing the drug, noting "you can't pretend that people aren't 
going to use marijuana."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom