Pubdate: Fri, 31 Mar 2017
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.montrealgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Marc Solby
Page: A8

TOBACCO MODEL SHOULDN'T APPLY TO CANNABIS

Task force recommendations on marketing of marijuana are too
restrictive, Marc Solby says.

Spring has sprung and along with crocus blooms, Canadians are eagerly
awaiting the legislation to create and govern the recreational
cannabis market. In April 2016, Health Minister Jane Philpott
announced a deadline of spring 2017 to bring in legislation. That time
is now.

We hope that the government is developing legislation that is bolder
and more practical than the cautious and naive recommendations issued
nearly four months ago by its task force looking at the issue. The
task force, with its emphasis on law enforcement, failed to imagine
and embrace a legal, recreational market. Instead, it chose an
approach that is needlessly restricting and controlling. It seeks to
create a market to sell cannabis, but wants to sell the least amount
possible, essentially trying to suck and blow at the same time.

The report cautiously categorizes marketing elements such as product
packaging and advertising under the heading "Minimizing Harm." They
rightly belong under a heading akin to "responsibly developing the
market." The team treats cannabis in a slightly more restrictive way
than tobacco. In summary, it calls for:

A dedicated retail outlet, but not the liquor store (including
provincial ones) because a high-traffic location like that might
encourage the purchase of cannabis and might promote co-usage with
alcohol;

Plain packaging with only basic information (more restrictive than
current tobacco regulations);

Restricted sponsorship, endorsement and branding similar to tobacco
(i.e. none);

Limited promotion (advertising) to adult-only locations, similar to
tobacco.

The working group has misjudged the harm presented by the use of
cannabis. Without getting into duelling academic studies, most
evidence indicates that occasional, recreational use of cannabis by
adults does no harm, particularly if the user avoids smoking it. Most
experts agree it is quite a bit less harmful than alcohol and far less
harmful and addicting than tobacco.

The recommendations also fail to consider the economic reality of the
marketplace. The federal government invited people to risk their
capital and start businesses as "Licensed Producers and Sellers" of
medical marijuana; roughly 40 companies now hold licences and hundreds
of applicants are in the queue. These emerging brands and companies
will almost certainly carry forward into the recreational market or
suffer significant losses. How does the regulator justify depriving
these investors of their right to build their brands through marketing
and advertising? The government is naive to simultaneously exploit the
invisible hand of capitalism and lock it into handcuffs.

It is reasonable to have controls on promoting cannabis to minors, but
the government's own estimates indicate that one-third of all
18-to-24-year-olds consume cannabis at least once a year. They
anticipate that 4.3 million Canadians over 18 will use cannabis upon
legalization. There is no practical reason to deny these consumers
their robust marketplace of brands; certainly, not the fear of
attracting minors, which can be managed through simple guidelines, as
with alcohol.

Roughly 70 per cent of Canadians support legalizing marijuana, in part
to dampen organized crime, and because of the wasted investment trying
to prohibit it. Destroying the illegal market will be a considerable
challenge. We sink ourselves when we try to eliminate the "plain brown
envelope" by selling cannabis in a plain brown envelope.

The task force sidestepped both its mandated responsibility and the
economic opportunity presented by recreational marijuana. Instead it
stuffed it into an ill-fitting package called "tobacco" and applied
the maximum marketing restrictions available. It's preposterous to do
it under the banner of "minimizing harm" to youth.

Canada has a rare opportunity to be a global leader in the production,
marketing and trade in cannabis. We have already begun exporting our
products, skills and knowledge to other countries. To continue this
windfall, our regulation needs to overcome the residual fear of
prohibition. Canadians are ready to evolve; is their government?

(Marc Solby is a Toronto marketing consultant. He is also the founder of 
the Cannabis Consumer Update, research that monitors cannabis users' 
behaviour and attitudes.)
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MAP posted-by: Matt