Pubdate: Wed, 06 Dec 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: A10

MINIMUM AGE FOR BUYING CANNABIS IN B.C. TO BE 19

British Columbia will introduce a system of public and private
retailers to sell recreational cannabis and set a minimum age of 19 to
buy and use the drug when it is legal next year.

Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth released the NDP government's
preliminary vision for legal cannabis on Tuesday after a consultation
process that received nearly 50,000 submissions and sought input from
First Nations and local governments.

However, the precise details of how those public and private sales
will be regulated won't be released until the end of next month, and
Mr. Farnworth said the province is still determining whether the
hundreds of people currently selling cannabis illegally through
dispensaries will be allowed to enter the new market.

"Looking at the responses received, it's clear that British Columbians
support the priorities of protecting young people, health and safety,
keeping the criminal element out of cannabis and keeping roads safe,
which will guide the province in developing B.C.'s regulatory
framework for non-medical cannabis," Mr. Farnworth said in a news release.

The provincial government will be the lone wholesaler of recreational
cannabis through the BC Liquor Distribution Branch. Mr. Farnworth did
not say whether online sales will also have the same mix of public and
private sellers; most other provincial governments, with the exception
of Manitoba, plan to run online sales themselves.

He told reporters during a conference call Tuesday that the province
is not including revenue estimates from this new industry in its new
budget in February. He warned against expecting an initial windfall of
cannabis revenues, noting officials in Colorado and Washington
stressed that to him when he visited those states last year to study
their legalization efforts.

B.C. will make sure money made off of cannabis sales goes toward
important policy directives such as educating young people about the
drug, enforcing the new provincial laws for businesses and cracking
down on drugimpaired driving, Mr. Farnworth added, but he would not
say whether government profits from cannabis would go into the
province's general revenue.

The B.C. government has previously signalled there would not be a
one-size-fits-all approach to legal marijuana sales and suggested the
province's existing network of illegal dispensaries, which in some
cases operate with permits from local governments, would make it
easier for the province to have its system ready by the federal
government's July 1 deadline. Several premiers and law-enforcement
agencies, flustered by the tight timeline, have asked the federal
government to delay legalization, but Ottawa has rejected those requests.

Ontario plans a monopoly of cannabis stores as a subsidiary of the
Liquor Control Board of Ontario - 40 next year and 150 by 2020 - in a
move that would effectively end private dispensaries. Quebec followed
suit with a similar plan for exclusive government sales online and in
person. Alberta has said cannabis will be sold in private standalone
stores and online through a government-owned distributor.

In British Columbia, a 19-member committee of municipal politicians
and bureaucrats began meeting in October to discuss legalization with
the province.
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