Pubdate: Wed, 14 Dec 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
Authors: Mike Hager and Adrian Morrow
Page: A8-9
Referenced: http://mapinc.org/url/spC7LQBu

NOT YET CLEAR WHERE LEGAL POT WILL BE SOLD

Report recommends provinces and territories all control wholesale
distribution of marijuana while working closely with municipalities to
cre

Canadians now have an idea of when they will be able to purchase
recreational marijuana, who can buy it and how much, but where and how
cannabis is sold remains up to provinces that are offering only vague
opinions on the eventual retail rules for the drug.

Now that the federal task force has recommended against selling
cannabis in liquor stores - an idea floated in British Columbia,
Manitoba and Ontario - it is unclear whether sales will be at
government-run outlets, pharmacies or private shops. The panel
recommended provinces and territories control the wholesale
distribution of marijuana, but work closely with municipalities to
create their own approach to selling recreational pot, which Ottawa
expects could happen two years from now.

The panel's findings echoed some of Vancouver's rules to keep its
dispensaries and their products away from kids, but British Columbia
was clear it would prefer not to entrench the market position of these
illegal stores that exploded on the West Coast and then spread to Toronto.

"I'm not impressed [ with dispensaries]. It's a free-for- all out
there as far as I'm concerned," said B. C. Solicitor- General Mike
Morris, a former Mountie who added that marijuana has never touched
his lips.

"A lot of these dispensaries don't have public health forefront in
their minds, and it is in ours."

Michael McLellan, a Toronto-based spokesman for a pot-dispensary
advocacy group called the Canadian Cannabis Retail Council, welcomed
the possibility of independent "dedicated storefronts" to sell
recreational marijuana. His group, which grew out of a Toronto
coalition formed after raids on dozens of Toronto dispensaries last
May, is willing to accept regulations to ensure its products are safe,
he said.

Mr. McLellan said he hopes new laws also allow employees charged at
Canada's hundreds of illegal storefronts to work in the legal industry.

Mr. Morris said his staff and those in other provincial ministries are
waiting on the federal government to introduce its bill legalizing
cannabis next spring to create their own rules.

The federal panel's final report also recommended recreational
cannabis be sold through the mail, in part so that those in remote and
rural communities can have access. However, the group warned that
selling cannabis in government liquor stores - for which Ontario
Premier Kathleen Wynne has advocated - could lead many more Canadians
to use cannabis and possibly mix it with booze, which could greatly
increase rates of impaired driving.

Ontario's Attorney- General Yasir Naqvi was tight-lipped about what
sort of retail system the province prefers. He said he had not had a
chance to read the report Tuesday.

"We're nowhere close to making those decisions; these are
recommendations," he said at an unrelated announcement in Toronto.
"There's a lot of analysis that has to be done … this is a complex
file, this is a very complex issue. This is the end of prohibition of
our time. We have to get it right."

Mr. Naqvi, who said he has never smoked marijuana, said the government
was mostly concerned about ensuring social responsibility.

"Ontario will advocate and develop a regime for the regulated use of
recreational marijuana that will ensure we protect our youth and
vulnerable, that we promote public health and safety and focus on
prevention and harm reduction," he said.

Liberal insiders say Ms. Wynne was only "musing" about liquor store
sales last year and the government has no serious plans tor put pot in
the province's 654 outlets. The union that represents LCBO employees
is lobbying for the Crown corporation to sell marijuana.

One source pointed to the model used by the state of Washington: Under 
such a system, a government agency would buy the marijuana from growers 
as a means of ensuring quality and cutting out organized crime, then 
wholesale it to private, pot-specific stores. The stores would be 
subject to strict conditions to ensure there are not too many of them 
and they are not near schools.

Alberta's Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley said her province, unlike
other jurisdictions, does not sell liquor through government-run
stores, so it could create a new model.

"It makes it a little bit easier," she told reporters on Tuesday. "We
have a lot of consultation to do with our municipal partners in terms
of where to go with that and our law enforcement partners."

Vancouver councillor Kerry Jang, architect of the country's first
dispensary bylaw, said provincial governments must allow enough
storefront access to cannabis to displace the black market. Cities
should now create bylaws for the retail sale of the drug, he said.

"I recommend they do what the City of Vancouver did," he said, adding
that the bylaws can be easily modified once the federal and provincial
governments unveil new rules.

So far, the Canadian Pharmacists Association and the drug stores have
signalled only that they want a piece of medical sales.

But London Drugs' vice-president of pharmacy, John Tse, said drug
stores have secure delivery networks if governments decide they are
the best option for recreational pot.

- - With a report from Jeff Gray
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt