Pubdate: Thu, 10 Nov 2016
Source: Northumberland Today (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 Sun Media
Contact: http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/letters
Website: http://www.northumberlandtoday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5003
Author: Valerie MacDonald
Page: A1

MP DISCUSSES MARIJUANA LEGISLATION WITH COUNCIL

New legislation around medical marijuana - including its licensing and
distribution - is expected in April, 2017.

And it will be created after a task force that is working right now
provides a report, Northumberland Peterborough South MP Kim Rudd told
Hamilton Township councillors Tuesday.

The council had asked the MP to the council session to answer
questions about marijuana because of past complaints about grow ops in
the township of which they knew nothing, members said, until they
received a phone call from a neighbour.

Rudd said that even under existing legislation, licensed growers must
inform municipalities they are in operation (after first getting a
licence from Health Canada) and comply with the township's zoning
bylaws and the building and fire codes.

"Are there repercussions for not complying?" Mayor Mark Lovshin
asked.

"Did you report it to Health Canada?" Rudd responded. Such a concern
would have to come from the municipality, she advised.

New legislation will make such non-compliance and criminal violations
"clearer," Rudd said.

"You are not the only municipality" having these issues, she
added.

At this time, storefronts and dispensaries are "illegal" and won't be
in the new legislation, she said.

And only medical marijuana will be the subject of the new law. It will
only deal with dried marijuana for medical use. People who need it for
medical purposes will be able to grow it at home or acquire it through
a designated third party, she said. There will not be any
decriminalization of marijuana "in the meantime" - that is, before the
new legislation is created, Rudd said.

Asked in a subsequent interview if decriminalization was on the
horizon, Rudd said that it was a Justice matter and that an overhaul
of the Criminal Code was underway, but she had no specific information
on that issue.

During the last election as head of the Liberal Party, Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau said that the system of marijuana prohibition did not
work.

"It does not prevent young people from using marijuana and too many
Canadians end up with criminal records for possessing small amounts of
the drug. Arresting and prosecuting these offences is expensive for
our criminal justice system. It traps too many Canadians in the
criminal justice system for minor, non-violent offences. At the same
time, the proceeds from the illegal drug trade support organized crime
and greater threats to public safety, like human trafficking and hard
drugs," a Liberal election website states.

"To ensure that we keep marijuana out of the hands of children, and
the profits out of the hands of criminals, we will legalize, regulate,
and restrict access to marijuana.

"We will remove marijuana consumption and incidental possession from
the Criminal Code, and create new, stronger laws to punish more
severely those who provide it to minors, those who operate a motor
vehicle while under its influence, and those who sell it outside of
the new regulatory framework."
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MAP posted-by: Matt