It's all about harm reduction and improving community health outcomes No doubt some Hamiltonians are chuckling to hear city council is considering banning sugary drinks from city buildings to protect people's health. With good reason. The proposed ban by the public health department lands at the same time the city is moving ahead with opening its first safe injection site for drug addicts. It's more than a little ironic that the city may be cracking down on sugar while enabling the use of illegal drugs like heroin and cocaine. [continues 581 words]
Cannabis sales likely won't prove a financial bonanza. Those counting on help from cannabis sales to balance the provincial budget are in for a disappointment. As far as Statistics Canada can tell, cannabis prices in this country have been dropping for the past three years, perhaps the past dozen years. Since weed-market watchers in the United States have found roughly the same thing, it's probably true. Canada's provincial treasurers, along with private investors in the cannabis trade, may still be able to turn a profit, but the bonanza that used to beckon has probably evaporated already. [continues 618 words]
OTTAWA - A Senate committee says Ottawa should put off legalizing marijuana for a year until Canada and First Nations can negotiate tax sharing, produce culturally appropriate education materials and ensure First Nations are able to regulate for themselves whether they want pot to be legal in their communities or not. The Senate Aboriginal Peoples committee released a report Tuesday after studying the impact the government's legalizing pot bill could have on Indigenous communities. While Ottawa plans to make pot legal sometime this summer, the committee says Indigenous [continues 320 words]
We are already seeing construction workers smoking during their breaks, one industry rep said at a gathering Contractors, building owners and construction company owners say they are worried about the repercussions of the imminent legalization of cannabis and think there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. The Corporation des proprietaires immobiliers du Quebec, the Association des professionnels de la construction et de l'habitation (APCHQ) and the province's two largest construction unions - the FTQ-Construction and the Conseil Provincial - debated on Monday the impact of the anticipated legalization during a summit of Quebec's construction industry that took place in Montreal. [continues 85 words]
Canada's real estate industry organization is calling for a moratorium on growing recreational marijuana at home until the government sets out nationwide regulations for the practice. Ottawa's proposed marijuana legalization regulations allow Canadians to grow up to four marijuana plants at their residences. Medical users are already allowed to grow at home after a federal court ruled in 2016 that the government cannot ban patients from growing their own cannabis. However, the Canadian Real Estate Association said the ban it is requesting applies to home cultivation for recreational users when marijuana legalized later this year. [continues 636 words]
The Senate seems determined to slow the Liberal government's timeline for marijuana legalization and Justin Trudeau seems just as determined to deliver his legalization on time - give or take a few weeks. The prime minister will get his way, but that doesn't mean the Senate, and Indigenous leaders, are not flagging some important issues. Opposition Conservatives would like nothing more than to push the rollout of legal recreational pot into an election year, the better to take political advantage of the inevitable stumbles that will come with such a momentous move. [continues 649 words]
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau isn't backing down from his government's much-maligned timeline for legalizing marijuana, despite a growing chorus of calls from senators, Indigenous leaders and others to delay the plan for up to a year. Trudeau says the plan to make recreational pot legal by this summer will go ahead without delay. "We're going to continue to move forward. We're going to bring in legalization as we've committed to this summer on schedule," Trudeau said Thursday. [continues 504 words]
Canada is squandering first-mover advantage with cannabis, the most significant consumer product launch in history, at a time when our economy is starving for growth. How do you choke on $60 billion-plus of growth opportunity and hundreds of thousands of purposeful jobs? You roll it into the hands of the federal government, and they then shotgun it out to ten provinces, three territories and all the bureaucrats and bulls* that comes with this plan. There is no efficiency or scale. [continues 355 words]
Heather D'Alessio remembers drug education in high school that consisted mainly of dire warnings about the consequences of using any of them. She was smoking pot by Grade 9, so she disregarded the advice. "Most of the time, they would give us these fact sheets on cannabis. Then we'd all take it out to the corner and get high and laugh at it because we thought it was stupid." Who uses cannabis? Governments and public health advocates are now launching new education campaigns to warn young people about the health risks of marijuana, which will soon be legal across Canada. [continues 1132 words]
The Liberal Party of Canada has voted in favour of removing criminal penalties for the personal possession of drugs. It's one of a number of policies that the party selected as priorities at a convention in Halifax on Saturday (April 21). Members also voted in favour of universal pharmacare, decriminalizing consensual sex work, and expanding medicare to cover mental-health issues. A total of 15 policies were selected to become official party priorities. However, a policy's status as a party priority does not mean that party leaders have to include it in the document where it really counts: the party's campaign platform for the next federal election. [continues 495 words]
Toronto's municipal licensing and standards department is reviewing city bylaws to see if changes are needed to deal with the "potential impacts" that people growing legal marijuana may have on neighbouring tenants or properties. Mark Sraga, director of investigation services for the licensing department, said he doesn't anticipate cannabis home-grow operations to have a significant impact on municipal bylaws when the law permits people to grow the drug this summer. "Under Health Canada rules, people are allowed to grow medicinal marijuana in their houses," he said. "I don't see how growing four plants necessarily having any impact considering the fact I've seen some personal designation grow licences for hundreds of plants." [continues 275 words]
Some remain skeptical the proposed Cannabis Act (Bill C-45) will achieve one of its primary objectives: protecting youth from cannabis-related harms. Some feel the minimum age should be higher than the minimum age for alcohol, worried that those under 25 seem more vulnerable to dependence and health problems linked to long-term, heavy use. Critics of the proposed minimum age may be overlooking another primary objective: displacing the black-market. Young adults aged 18 to 24 represent one third of the market. The act attempts to strike a balance between keeping marijuana away from minors and cash away from criminals. [continues 629 words]
Premier Kathleen Wynne has ordered that school boards be given a say in where provincial marijuana stores are located, noting that boards are likely to know "where their kids go at lunchtime (and) where they go after school." Her demand came after the announcement that Toronto's first outlet of the Ontario Cannabis Store would be located in Scarborough, 450 metres from Blantyre Public School. The Toronto District School Board said it had asked to be consulted about the location, but never was. Concerned Blantyre parents discussed the news at a school council meeting last week. [continues 1490 words]
Doctors who treat youth have serious concerns about the legalization of marijuana. With universities and schools providing few details around strategies for marijuana legalization, doctors who treat youth have serious concerns about the inevitable increase in use and the impending impacts of what can be a dangerous drug. Dr. Chris Wilkes, Alberta Health Services head of child and adolescent psychiatry, said educators "need to ramp it up" in terms of creating environments to ensure safety and informing youths about the health effects of marijuana. [continues 805 words]
The decision isn't without controversy, but city council was wise to ban the use of marijuana in public places. When the federal government legalizes cannabis later this summer, Calgarians won't be able to smoke, vape or eat products made with the substance in public spaces, unless they're a medical marijuana user. That's led critics of the decision to complain that people who live in multi-family dwellings may not be able to use the drug. "It's not an insignificant group of people - 36 per cent of Calgarians are renters," Coun. Evan Woolley said when the restriction was being discussed by council. "And effectively, we are saying there is no space for you to consume cannabis, and that's a problem for me." [continues 311 words]
MONTREAL-In the rush to marijuana legalization, cities across the country are harnessing their limited powers to delay the opening of retail pot stores, dictate where they can operate or ban them outright-at least temporarily. There was uproar from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Toronto District School Board after finding out the city's first retail cannabis store would open just 450 metres from a school, in a strip mall where students often eat lunch. But it's the scenario many local politicians are fighting to prevent. [continues 982 words]
Canada is moving closer to the legalization of recreational Cannabis this summer. Federal legislation is awaiting Senate approval and all the provinces have developed their implementation approach. Governments across the country rarely agree on anything. But as we embark on this change, they have been unanimous in agreeing that their top policy objective is the protection of youth. We know what the approaches and commitments have been from various governments, so we are in a good position to know whether their actions reflect their words. So far, the simple answer is no. [continues 629 words]
Two very different things, both related to marijuana, happened in Toronto last week. One mattered, and pointed to some of the challenges still ahead with the legalization of marijuana later this year. The other was the proverbial tempest in a teapot. Allegations that workers were smoking pot on the job, forcing Metrolinx to shut down work on a section of the $5.3-billion Crosstown LRT project, was a serious matter. But the uproar over the Toronto location for one of Ontario's first government-run pot shops, which continued this week with comments from Premier Kathleen Wynne, is way out of proportion. [continues 541 words]
VANCOUVER - A government prohibition against mixing cannabis and caffeine makes little sense, say some research scientists. There is only speculation that the combination might pose a risk. The practice, so common in the legendary pot capital of Amsterdam that cannabis dispensaries are called "coffee shops," appears unlikely to be coming to Canada anytime soon. "It seems like the overriding philosophy for a lot of this is: ban anything that might be a concern," said M-J Milloy, research scientist with the B.C. Centre on Substance Use. "Then it's easier to un-ban rather than trying to do it the other way around." [continues 591 words]
On the eve of 4/20, CBC is hosting a panel to give kids and parents the information they need before anyone tokes up. Titled 4/19, the free evening event at Vancouver Technical secondary hosted by CBC's Gloria Macarenko is aimed at informing teenagers and their parents about the medical, social and legal impacts of cannabis use for youth, with legalization in sight. Experts range from youth workers and police officers to lawyers and scientists, covering all aspects of this hazy issue. [continues 410 words]
