Pubdate: Tue, 21 Jun 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

GROUP AIMS TO BE ON FEDERAL POT-SHOP PANEL

Bill Blair, the federal government's lead on legalizing marijuana, has
been quietly meeting with advocates for the illegal pot shops
springing up across the country, hearing their arguments for how
regulating the sector could help eliminate the black market.

Mr. Blair blasted dispensary operators at a recent conference as
reckless profiteers "who don't care about the law, who don't care
about regulations, don't care about kids, they don't care about
communities, they don't care about health of Canadians." But days
later, the Liberal MP and former Toronto Police chief held a series of
informal "behind the scenes" talks at the party's convention in
Winnipeg, according to Rosy Mondin, a Vancouver lawyer who recently
co-founded the non-profit Cannabis Trade Alliance of Canada, which
represents legal and illegal marijuana business owners.

Ms. Mondin said he appeared "engaged and interested" as she made the
case for the Liberal government to license private cannabis
dispensaries and their small-scale growers.

Earlier this month, Mr. Blair invited Ms. Mondin to meet again in
Ottawa and asked her which pot shop owners and illegal growers should
be interviewed by a federal-provincial task force that is to report
back later this year with draft regulations on recreational cannabis
sales.

Ms. Mondin's organization - which includes cannabis growers licensed
under the old medical marijuana system, as well as dispensaries - has
formally lobbied nine MPs in the past month and wants to be part of
Mr. Blair's upcoming panel.

Ms. Mondin and Mr. Blair were joined earlier this month by B.C.-based
lawyers Kirk Tousaw and John Conroy, both long-time counsel for
dispensaries and the leaders of a team that won a constitutional
challenge forcing Health Canada to overhaul its medical marijuana
rules by the end of summer.

"The whole objective is to make sure you don't have a black market,"
Mr. Conroy said.

Mr. Blair would not confirm or deny these conversations took place or
his government's stance on regulating dispensaries. His spokesman,
Michael Davis, said in an e-mailed statement that he has "been
listening to as many different points of view on this file as
possible, and will continue to do so."

These meetings are the first signal the Liberal government is open to
a discussion on dispensaries, several hundred of which operate outside
of Health Canada's mail-order system for medical cannabis. The
government is attempting to craft a strict set of regulations aimed at
stopping the "billions upon billions of dollars flowing into the
pockets of organized crime, street gangs and gun-runners," Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau said recently, as well as prohibiting minors
from accessing the drug.

Ms. Mondin's group recently published a position paper advocating that
Ottawa create different licensing and security requirements for a
range of cannabis businesses, including seed and clone nurseries,
commercial growers both large and small, oil and extract processors,
cannabis wholesalers and dispensaries.

The paper argues that once all of these illegal industries are
participating in a regulated market, the government has more leverage
to tightly control them and stamp out objectionable activity. In
passing its landmark pot-shop bylaw last spring, the City of Vancouver
was able to exact concessions from dispensaries, such as eliminating
the sale of edibles.

Mr. Conroy said he and Mr. Blair discussed the possibility of
dispensaries operating with a licensed pharmacist inside the store
doling out cannabis. Both Mr. Conroy and Ms. Mondin say they stressed
to him the importance of keeping recreational marijuana out of liquor
stores, an idea being pushed by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and
other provincial politicians.

John Fowler, president of Ontario-based licensed producer Supreme
Pharmaceuticals, said it's a positive sign that Mr. Blair is seeking
such a wide range of opinions, noting that a greater portion of the
black market will be eliminated the more inclusive the law becomes.

"The most important thing someone who is in the cannabis industry can
do - regardless of what sector that is today - is to look to work with
the government," he said.

Dieter MacPherson, president of the Canadian Association of Medical
Cannabis Dispensaries, a trade association representing 45 pot stores
across the country, called Mr. Blair's meetings heartening, but
cautioned that it "is only a first step" in ensuring the government
doesn't shut illegal businesses out of the new recreational market.

"With many decades of experience, the people that are most qualified
to understand the nuances of how to distribute and manage this plant
exist within the dispensary industry," he said.

Mr. MacPherson estimates some 250,000 to 300,000 Canadians are
currently accessing dispensaries, a number that dwarfs the 60,000
patients who have prescriptions under Health Canada's medical cannabis
regime. Various estimates peg the value of the country's eventual
recreational market at upward of $5-billion, if the black market can
be severely restricted.
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MAP posted-by: Matt