Pubdate: Fri, 24 Mar 2017
Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB)
Copyright: 2017 The Edmonton Journal
Website: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134
Author: Juris Graney
Page: A3

PUT POT REVENUES INTO MENTAL HEALTH, ADVOCATES URGE

Group wants taxes Alberta collects from cannabis sales used to bolster
services

The province should reinvest all tax revenue from the sale of legal
cannabis in Alberta into addiction and mental health services, an
advocacy group says.

Sateen Werner, a graduate student at the University of Alberta and
member of Student Advocates for Public Health, told a forum Wednesday
the legalization of cannabis and the new revenue stream has the
potential to address the "concerning gaps" in the province's
"underfunded and under-resourced" addictions and mental health
services in Alberta.

According to a 2015 government report, just six per cent of healthcare
spending goes to addiction and mental health programs.

Werner said, based on calculations of Alberta's population and
comparisons with U.S. states with legal cannabis such as Colorado, the
province could potentially see $50 million in added revenue in the
first year of legalization and up to $100 million in the second year.

UNMET NEED

Cameron Wild, professor of socio-behavioural sciences with the
University of Alberta School of Public Health, said that money is
desperately needed for health support programs, since about 20 per
cent of adult Albertans are currently living with mental health or
addictions issues.

"And of them, about half report they either don't get service at all
or don't get enough service when they seek care," he said.

"This is an astoundingly high level of unmet service need that would
be intolerable in virtually every other area of health. We don't talk
about unmet service needs in cancer or diabetes in this way, because
addiction and mental-health issues have traditionally been the black
sheep in the health-care discussion.

"I don't think we have ever been in such a historically good spot to
begin real, serious discussion about how we are going to strategize
and use revenues more creatively than we have in the past to address
these pressing mental health problems."

WHO GETS FIRST DIBS?

Investing 100 per cent of tax revenue into health services may prove
to be a lofty ambition, but the suggestion a cannabis-funded revenue
stream should be directed into a special pool that would give
addictions and health services first dibs before being doled out to
other services is not unheard of.

In fact, public health, education and addictions support has been at
the forefront in almost every example of legalization of recreational
cannabis in the United States.

In Washington, 50 per cent of all cannabis-related revenue is mandated
to go back into the healthcare system, and in Colorado, the first $40
million of retail tax revenue each year goes toward renovating,
upgrading or building new schools in the state.

The federal government's task force report into the legalization of
cannabis in Canada also made clear recommendations to ensure that
revenue should be used as a "source of funding for administration,
education, research and enforcement."

Earlier this year, the Liberal government said it wanted to table
legislation to legalize and regulate the recreational use of pot this
spring.
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