Pubdate: Tue, 06 Dec 2016
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2016 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Mia Rabson
Page: B5

PREMIER WANTS POT BILL POSTPONED WHILE KINKS WORKED OUT

MANITOBA - Premier Brian Pallister said the federal government should
delay introducing legislation to legalize marijuana until the
provinces are prepared to deal with its legal and social implications,
particularly drug-impaired driving.

Pallister heads to Ottawa Friday for a first ministers meeting between
premiers and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Trudeau called the meeting
to discuss his climate change plan, and requirement for every province
to introduce a price on carbon, and the premiers are hoping to put
pressure on Trudeau over health-care transfers.

Pallister said the pending pot legislation has got to be discussed
because the Liberals are plowing ahead to legalize it when there
aren't enough supports in place ranging from distribution plans,
public education and awareness, and anti-drug driving laws.

"I do think it's too quick," he said. "I am very concerned."

Legalizing marijuana was an election promise. The Liberals assigned
rookie MP and former Toronto police chief Bill Blair to be their point
person on the issue. They established a task force to recommend how
the government should proceed.

That task force, headed by former Liberal health minister Anne
McLellan, delivered its report to the government last week. The goal
is to introduce legislation based on task force recommendations in the
spring.

Pallister said the provinces have a lot of work to do to address the
legalization, and he wants the Liberals to put the brakes on until
things can be set up properly.

"You've got an array of issues that we should be co-ordinating among
the provinces," he said.

"We're not little islands. You don't want to do what post-Prohibition
governments did, just a hodge podge of silo-isms. We have a real
opportunity and an obligation to get our people working, not at cross
purposes."

Pallister said the public's understanding of the issue of drug driving
is not good enough.

"I don't think a lot of people, particularly young people who I have
consulted on this, have the same sense of concern about driving stoned
as they do about driving drunk. That bothers me. If we put lives at
risk as a consequence of not being properly prepared on this file,
that is a significant mistake."

In 2012, the Canadian alcohol and drug use monitoring survey found 2.5
per cent of Canadians admitted driving within two hours of using pot
at least once in the last 12 months.

The numbers are far higher among young people, and particularly among
young males. Almost one in 10 Canadians who were 18 or 19 years old
said they had driven a vehicle within two hours of smoking or
ingesting marijuana.

Drug-driving arrests and accidents have increased in U.S.
jurisdictions where pot was legalized in recent years.

Since 2008, the Criminal Code has allowed police to demand drivers
suspected of drug use submit to a field sobriety test but roadside
testing for drugs is still in its infancy. There is research underway
on roadside saliva tests to detect for drugs, but they are not
approved for use in Canada.

Other issues that need to be worked out include who will produce and
distribute marijuana, the legal age to use it, and criminal penalties
for those who use, grow or sell it illegally.
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MAP posted-by: Matt