Pubdate: Wed, 08 Mar 2017
Source: Goldstream Gazette (Victoria, CN BC)
Copyright: 2017 Black Press
Contact:  http://www.goldstreamgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1291
Author: Matthew M. Elrod

ANOTHER TAKE ON MEDICINAL CANNABIS ADMINISTRATION

Re: Langford mayor urges Trudeau to take action on pot 
(Goldstreamgazette.com)

Langford Mayor Stew Young seems unaware that drug and natural health
product regulation is a provincial, not a federal matter.

When the federal government legalizes cannabis by removing it from the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, it will be up to the provinces to
decide who can cultivate and sell cannabis to whom.

We have been suffering under cannabis prohibition for almost a
century, so it is not as though the issue has become more urgent since
the Liberals announced their intention to legalize.

Dispensaries and compassion clubs first appeared in the 1990s, long
before we had a medicinal cannabis regime. They have become more
prevalent over the years, as the medicinal regime has been repeatedly
stuck down by the courts as unconstitutional, and found to be
dysfunctional by doctors and patients.

As much as Mayor Young might disapprove of grey market dispensaries,
they are an improvement over the black market drug dealers with whom
they compete. Unlike drug dealers, dispensaries only sell cannabis and
cannabis products, not other so-called "controlled drugs and
substances."

They avoid selling to minors, they are non-violent, accountable to
their customers, pay taxes and rent, and employ people. They typically
attempt to get along with their communities and avoid complaints to
maintain a fragile truce with the police.

Matthew M. Elrod

Metchosin
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MAP posted-by: Matt