Pubdate: Wed, 31 Jan 2018
Source: Edmonton Sun (CN AB)
Copyright: 2018 Canoe Limited Partnership.
Contact: http://www.edmontonsun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://www.edmontonsun.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/135
Author: Joe Warmington
Page: 14

SAFETY ADVOCATE ISSUES WARNING ABOUT POT EDIBLES

Unless you want to see people climbing up trees, the Ontario Safety
League is urging Canada to stay away from legalizing the sale of
marijuana edibles.

"Governments planning to tax legal marijuana sales should put a stop
to edibles right now," said Brian Patterson, president of the Ontario
Safety League. "It's way too risky to go down that road."

Patterson was responding to my column Tuesday in which two police
officers have been suspended pending a Professional Standards
investigation into an incident in which witnesses allege the officers
were taken to hospital after consuming an edible product that had been
seized as part of a drug raid on a pot dispensary.

Sources say Const. Vittorio Dominelli and Const. Jamie Young were
taken to hospital after experiencing hallucinations following alleged
consumption of a pot-based edible. Dominelli allegedly got so high, he
ended up in a tree.

The alleged incident prompted the Ontario Safety League to contact
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Canadian Senate to ask for a
cease and desist strategy. This is not the first time Patterson has
talked to me about this issue.

For the last year, he has been talking about marijuana edibles as a
major risk to society.

"I have been following what is going on down in Colorado and I don't
like what I see," he said.

"I don't want to see that up here."

When he heard about one Toronto Police officer allegedly ending up in
a tree, he was not as shocked as everybody else seemed to be. "That's
what can happen when you digest this drug," he said.

While edible products are not slated to come into the upcoming
legalization process until 2019, Patterson says that's way too soon.

"I get a sense there is pressure to move these edibles on to the table
quicker and I am saying I am not sure I ever want them on the table at
all," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt