Pubdate: Wed, 04 May 2016
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: David Rider
Page: GT2

TORONTO LOOKS TO FEDS FOR POT SHOP GUIDANCE

Dispensaries Multiply While Ottawa Mulls Legalization

Toronto lawmakers watching medical marijuana shops pop up "like 
crocuses in spring" are hoping for signals from Ottawa on how to deal 
with the onslaught.

"We need a sign from the federal government - are they going to 
change the rules around medical marijuana? Should we as council be 
trying to close these clinics altogether or make new rules around 
where they can go, how close they can be to each other?" asked 
Councillor Paula Fletcher.

"We've been caught by surprise by the proliferation of these shops. 
People don't like to wake up and find they live in one big marijuana 
dispensary and I don't blame them."

Star reporters last week visited dispensaries where clients are 
required to show a prescription and others where a conversation with 
a "health professional" is enough to walk out with a bag of pot.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's vow to legalize recreational use has 
left a haze around Health Canada rules, as has a court decision on 
patients growing their own plants. The rules say only federally 
licensed producers can distribute pot, by delivery, to 
prescription-holding patients.

Toronto's licensing department told the Star it is laying groundwork 
for a crackdown. A city rule states pot dispensaries must be 
federally licensed and located only in areas zoned industrial.

Fletcher, who says a half-dozen dispensaries are now located around a 
subway station in her Riverdale ward, is wary of marshalling city 
staff, police and courts in an enforcement blitz that might be made 
moot by legalization.

"There's a better, compassionate way" to dispense medical pot than 
Health Canada's much-criticized system, said Fletcher.

"It's like Uber - we need to regulate and find a solution that works 
for the city. Five or six shops in one area does not work for anybody.

"What's really clear is it's a multi-gazillion-dollar industry, to 
have so many shops open up like crocuses in spring. If we're 
legalizing, we need to make sure taxpayers benefit."

Vancouver, which first felt the weed wave, passed restrictions on 
dispensaries. It is now fining those that ignored the rules, such as 
operating within 300 metres of schools, while granting operating 
licences to others.

Some shops that broke the rules have closed while others are 
threatening legal challenges on the basis they are overly restrictive 
and unjustifiable.

Olga Fowell, a Forest Hill realtor and mom, is fed up with four 
dispensaries that have sprung up near her home at Eglinton Ave. W. 
and Avenue Rd.

She wants Toronto to crack down now and come up with regulations 
later, and is frustrated that public health seems unwilling to act.

"I'm not saying 'No to drugs;' I'm saying you need rules," Fowell 
said. "I can't have my kids around all these shops."

Councillor Joe Cressy, chair of Toronto's Drug Strategy 
Implementation Panel, is calling on Ottawa to work with cities to 
craft a framework for legalization, including new rules for medicinal pot.

In the meantime, the federal medicinal pot rules are "enforceable" by 
city licensing, Cressy said in a statement.

When told in an email that its medicinal marijuana rules are being 
ignored, and asked if any changes are coming, a Health Canada 
spokesman replied: "Dispensaries and other sellers of marijuana who 
are not licensed under the current law are illegal.

"Questions about enforcement of federal regulations in this area 
should be addressed to local law enforcement."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom