Pubdate: Tue, 02 May 2017
Source: Metro (Ottawa, CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 Metro
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/Ottawa
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4032
Author: Ryan Tumilty
Page: 3

PUZZLING OUT ALL THE PRACTICALITIES OF POT

City's health authority looks to cigarettes for guidelines

You likely won't be able to smoke marijuana anywhere you can't smoke
cigarettes today when pot becomes legal next year.

But that's just one of the challenges Ottawa Public Health (OPH) is
working out.

The Liberal government's plan to legalize marijuana by July 2018 was
released in April, and provinces are next to set up rules about how
the drug can be sold.

After that, municipalities will set their own rules.

Gillian Connelly, manager of health promotion and disease prevention,
said OPH would like to see use of marijuana restricted just like that
of cigarettes. There's a bill in the Ontario legislature right now
that would allow municipalities to include marijuana in anti-smoking
bylaws.

Connelly said that, much like tobacco and alcohol, there are health
risks to consuming marijuana. OPH will develop campaigns to stress
that fact, she said.

"We are definitely needing to inform people about what they're
consuming and the health implications," she said. "It's not a benign
substance."

Connelly said that in Colorado, where pot has already been legalized,
there were problems with edible marijuana being sold in candy form.

"The ER doctors saw an increase in poisonings from children consuming
edibles," she said.

She said the work won't end with legalization, and research on
marijuana will be ongoing.

"There are a lot of unknowns as a result of it having been illegal for
so long," she said. "There is a lot of research that needs to be done
on many levels."
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MAP posted-by: Matt