Pubdate: Sat, 23 Apr 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: Stephen Quinn
Page: S4

MARIJUANA REGULATION ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU DAZED AND CONFUSED

If you're having a hard time following Vancouver's position on
marijuana - recreational or otherwise - you're not alone.

On the same day the city allowed an unsanctioned and unpermited 4/20
event to take place on Sunset Beach, as well as a smaller event that
shut down Robson Street, Councillor Kerry Jang was talking tough about
shuttering the vast majority of the city's medicinal marijuana outlets.

April 29 is the city-imposed deadline for medical marijuana
dispensaries that don't comply with new minimum-distance rules and
other requirements. Since the city moved to regulate and grant
business licences to the shops, it has received 176 applications -
from both existing dispensaries and others hoping to set up shop. So
far, just 13 dispensaries have been granted conditional approval. In
addition, the B.C. Compassion Club, which has been at the corner of
Commercial Drive and 14th Avenue since 1997, won the unanimous
approval of the Board of Variance this week. It will be allowed to
remain at its current location despite its close proximity to two schools.

As for the ones that may be forced to close, Mr. Jang said in an
interview, "they've all been given letters, they all know. Maybe they
didn't think we were serious about it."

Mr. Jang says the city will wait until the deadline passes, then see
who is still open. "We'll start looking at some fines, for example,
that range from a few hundred dollars a day to up to $10,000 a day
and, in extreme cases, we have no problem going to seek court
injunctions."

This is the same Kerry Jang who 14 months ago said there was no way
for the city to regulate the dispensaries because what they were doing
was illegal; then, two months later, when regulations were introduced,
said with a straight face: "We're regulating the business, not the
product."

Complicating matters was the announcement this week by federal Health
Minister Jane Philpott that, next spring, the government will begin
legalizing marijuana for recreational use in order to, in her words,
"keep marijuana out of the hands of children and profits out of the
hands of organized criminals."

With the legalization of pot now within reach, cannabis advocates want
a moratorium on marijuana-related arrests so people in possession of
small amounts of weed aren't saddled with criminal records for
something that is about to be legal.

Liberal MP and former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, who drew the
short straw and ended up with the marijuana file on his desk, has said
that, until new legislation is in place, marijuana is still illegal
and the laws will still be enforced. "It's a complex issue," he told
Parliament in February.

He's got that right. Vancouver Centre Liberal MP Hedy Fry apparently
thinks possession is legal. "If you're using it for personal use and
you're actually using it, then I don't think that's criminal
activity," Ms. Fry told me this week.

I'm not sure what Ms. Fry is referring to, but simple possession of
even a small amount of marijuana is still a criminal offence that
carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine or six months in jail or
both. Maybe she's talking about the varying levels of enthusiasm
police apply when enforcing the law.

To cloud matters further, we have the Federal Court ruling in February
that struck down the ban on medical marijuana users growing their own
at home.

No doubt all of this has emboldened and the already-entitled cannabis
crusaders - the same ones who invite thousands of people to smoke on a
beach where smoking is prohibited, sell their weed and wares and leave
piles of garbage behind for city workers to clean up without having to
pay a dime for it.

What I can predict with some degree of comfort is that, whatever the
federal legislation looks like for recreational use, the 4/20 types
will declare it too restrictive and complain that it is taking too
long to enact.

And if what is finally arrived at is deemed too restrictive or too
corporate, expect a parallel industry to emerge. One where pot
entrepreneurs open up storefronts to sell cannabis and derivatives of
unknown provenance in all of their glorious forms.

The city will send out some letters I'm sure.

Stephen Quinn is the host of On the Coast on CBC Radio One, 690 AM
and 88.1 FM in Vancouver.
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MAP posted-by: Matt