Pubdate: Thu, 10 Mar 2016
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Robert Benzie
Page: A1

PROVINCE BACKTRACKS ON MEDICAL POT POLICY

Public use of marijuana, e-cigarettes to be limited to 'protect people
from second-hand smoke'

The Ontario government is vaporizing the use of medical marijuana in
public places, the Star has learned.

In a major policy U-turn, Queen's Park will ban the smoking and vaping
of medicinal pot in all enclosed public places, workplaces and many
outdoor areas as well as curb the use and sale of e-cigarettes.

Associate health minister Dipika Damerla is expected to outline the
changes today.

Sources said the potentially controversial anti-toking and anti-vaping
measures were approved by Premier Kathleen Wynne's cabinet on
Wednesday afternoon.

The moves are "to strengthen . . . smoking laws to better protect
people from second-hand smoke, whether from a tobacco product or
medical marijuana," an official said.

While a ban on selling e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 19 took
effect on Jan. 1, the regulations limiting where adults could vape
were in limbo.

That's because the government had to go back to the drawing board
after new rules came out last November that would have allowed people
to smoke or vape medical marijuana in any public place where smoking
is otherwise prohibited.

The original exemptions included restaurants, offices, movie theatres,
stadiums and even children's playgrounds. That led to accusations the
government had made a hash of things, which forced Damerla to take a
second look.

"We will consider this feedback, look at it very carefully and see
what we need to do," the minister said last fall. "It's too early to
say whether this was a failure or not. It's important that governments
be responsive."

Business owners were unhappy at the possibility of having to tell
people to butt out their medication to appease customers concerned
about second-hand smoke or vapour.

Restaurants Canada had implored the government to rethink the policy
instead of putting restaurateurs on the spot.

Medical marijuana users can include HIV, cancer and glaucoma patients
and those with severe epilepsy who require it to control seizures.
There are about 23,000 Canadians who have prescriptions from their
doctors to take cannabis in various forms. For the most part their
medicinal marijuana comes from producers licensed and inspected by
Health Canada.

Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana, which represents the
patients, had hailed Damerla's initial opening up of the policy as an
"important milestone in the recognition of the legitimacy of the use
of cannabis as a medicine."

"Ontario has taken a huge step forward," executive director Jonathan
Zaid said in a statement Nov. 25.

But the Canadian Cancer Society, which is supporting Damerla's
tightening of the legislation, maintains second-hand marijuana smoke
may cause similar health problems as being exposed to tobacco smoke.

Rowena Pinto, the organization's Ontario vice-president of public
affairs, noted "e-cigarettes have not been thoroughly tested" and more
study is needed to determine the long-term effects.

With medical marijuana now widely accepted - and the federal Liberal
government studying how to legalize cannabis for recreational use -
the new vaping restrictions may be more contentious for Wynne's Liberals.

That's because the revised rules will treat e-cigarettes exactly like
tobacco, prohibiting their use in cars and trucks when driving with
children under 16.

Vaping will also be banned in restaurant and bar patios, schoolyards,
playgrounds, condominium common areas, stadiums and hospital grounds.

Under Damerla's amendments, the government "will expand the list of
places where e-cigarettes are prohibited for sale" to include
university and college campuses and "establish rules for the display
and promotion of e-cigarettes in places where they are sold and
prohibit the testing of e-cigarettes where they are sold."

Progressive Conservative MPP Randy Hillier, vapers' leading crusader
at Queen's Park because he maintains e-cigarettes help smokers wean
off of more harmful tobacco, has stressed "harm reduction ought to be
our goal.

"The most effective technology so far developed to help people kick
their smoking addiction is the vaporizer," Hillier
(Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington) noted at legislative hearings
last year.

Hillier was the lone dissenter in a 100-1 vote in the legislature last
year on the Making Healthier Choices Act that banned flavoured tobacco
and limited e-cigarettes.
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MAP posted-by: Matt