Pubdate: Fri, 24 Mar 2017
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2017 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Mike Hager
Page: S1

OTTAWA'S TASK-FORCE CHAIR URGES MARIJUANA PROHIBITION, FOR NOW

A former Liberal cabinet minister who recently chaired a panel guiding
Ottawa's push to legalize cannabis says police everywhere should
enforce the existing prohibition of marijuana, despite several
communities in British Columbia choosing to regulate - not raid -
illegal pot shops.

Anne McLellan, head of an official task force that submitted
recommendations to Ottawa on how best to legalize cannabis, said
Thursday that Vancouver crafted Canada's first municipal marijuana
bylaw in response to what was a "growing difficult situation for them."

But the former minister of public safety, health and justice in the
Liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin said other cities
should not follow suit before the current laws change, echoing what
the federal government has repeatedly said when asked about the rise
of illegal dispensaries.

"Nobody would deny that there are some practical problems at street
level, absolutely, nobody denies that," said Ms. McLellan, who was in
Vancouver speaking at Simon Fraser University's downtown campus on the
work the task force did last year.

"Cities should wait until the law changes instead of making their own
rules now and hoping to adapt them to a federal framework later on,"
she said. "I cannot advocate that anybody break existing laws. We are
a nation of law-abiding citizens."

Ottawa is expected to table legislation this spring that will legalize
and regulate recreational marijuana over the next two years. While the
stores are still illegal under federal law, they have proliferated in
cities such as Vancouver and Victoria, where local politicians argue
their rules can eventually be adapted to any national framework
regulating the storefront sale of the drug.

All dispensaries and compassion clubs across Canada still operate
outside the federal government's medical-marijuana program, which
permits about 30 industrial-scale growers to sell dried flowers and
bottles of cannabis oil directly to patients through the mail.

The federal government has said its two core priorities behind
legalizing the recreational sale of marijuana are: to keep the drug
out of the hands of young people and to stop the flow of money to
organized criminals involved in the production and sale of the drug on
the black market.

Vancouver's approach to regulating its dispensaries stands in stark
contrast to Toronto's, where police and politicians say a continuing
crackdown has become more urgent as these pot shops have become a
magnet for violent thieves because some owners are reluctant to report
robberies.

Civic and provincial politicians across the country are waiting on the
coming legalization bill to give some guidance as to where the drug
may be sold once it is legalized.

Vancouver councillor Kerry Jang, architect of the local dispensary
bylaw, said he was disappointed in Ms. McLellan and Ottawa's rhetoric,
noting they both appear to be eschewing the public-health approach of
his city, and that of other communities in B.C. also licensing these
illegal stores.

"It's sort of like we're in purgatory," he said Thursday. "And when
you're in purgatory, it's not about allocating our resources, it's
about advocating what's right for our citizens - that's what Vancouver
has done."

He said he wants Ms. McLellan to push federal ministers to implement
the new legislation faster because local governments across the
country are wasting millions of dollars containing the grey cannabis
market.

"When it comes to resources, the federal government better provide
good resources for us to help enforce and help manage what they want
us to do," said Mr. Jang, a clinical psychiatrist. "Otherwise, we're
going to be back to square one."

The Union of B.C. Municipalities has long advocated that cities
deserve to receive some of the eventual tax revenue from recreational
cannabis sales if they are expected to enforce federal cannabis laws.

The federal Liberals have said any pot proceeds would be directed to
addiction treatment, mental-health support and education programs, and
that provinces and territories will also have a significant say in how
cannabis revenues are spent. A recent study from the parliamentary
budget watchdog predicted that about 60 per cent of marijuana taxation
will flow to the provinces.

Ms. McLellan, now in the public-policy division of Bennett Jones, one
of the Canada's leading law firms operating in the cannabis sector,
said different communities have different concerns about the drug, as
evidenced by Toronto and Vancouver's contrasting approach to dealing
with illegal dispensaries.
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