Institutions need to have policies ready, writes Nelson Mensah-Aborampah.

Marijuana is just one of many controlled substances on campuses, but its upcoming legalization is going to present particular challenges for Canadian universities as they attempt to strike a balance between federal law and school policy.

Canadian universities have zero-tolerance policies toward the use or possession of marijuana. Nevertheless, it is one of the most used and easily accessible recreational substances among students. A 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey estimated past-year marijuana use to be 33 per cent among 18-24-year-olds, the ages of most university students.

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Despite the rhetoric, fear and general sky-is-falling condemnation from proponents of marijuana dispensaries in Nelson, there is no need to panic about the bylaw that was approved at city hall this week.

City council voted on a bylaw on Monday night to regulate certain aspects of dispensaries in the city, but have pledged not to shut down any current dispensaries.

The reason behind the bylaw is to ensure that these businesses operate in the same manner as any other business in the community.Nothing more.

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None of the six current pot dispensaries operating in downtown Nelson will be closed according to Nelson Mayor Deb Kozak and city manager Kevin Cormack. And though council passed a bylaw that aims to regulate the burgeoning industry, residents shouldn't expect any large-scale intervention.

"We tried valiantly to explain why we felt it was necessary to put in this bylaw," Kozak told the Star,noting the backlash and panic inspired by the decision made on Monday evening.

"People were very nervous and frightened, thinking the City of Nelson was going to take away their medicine or their access, and that's not what this is about. … This isn't a big axe hanging over the heads of the cannabis business community."

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The best system for non-medical marijuana sales already exists

Non-medical marijuana will be legally for sale soon and, here in British Columbia, we already have the ideal system in place to ensure that it's sold in the most socially responsible manner.

When Justin Trudeau's Liberals took office in October 2015, they did so with a host of mandates from Canadians. Stephen Harper thought that the Liberals' position on legal marijuana would sink them, but in the end it was hardly an issue at all.

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Love it or hate it, public retailing of non-medical marijuana is coming. With that in mind, the most socially responsible way to sell it in B.C. is through our existing public and private liquor stores.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals took office in October 2015, they did so with a host of mandates from Canadians. Former prime minister Stephen Harper thought the Liberals' position on legal marijuana would sink them, but in the end it was hardly an issue at all.

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Smart meters and high-tech devices on hydro poles have left cannabis-growing power thieves little choice but to pay their electricity bills.

In 2011, field inspections found that 62 per cent of grow-ops identified by B.C. Hydro were stealing power from the grid. But B.C.'s smart-meter system, installed the same year, and other new devices have replaced the Crown corporation's reliance on tips and risky in-person inspections and have helped put an end to tens of millions of dollars in losses each year.

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Re: Fatal car crashes triple among drivers high on marijuana after legalization in Colorado; double in Washington state, Oct. 30

Before raising the alarm on cannabis-impaired motor vehicle accidents, the stats presented in this article require additional clarification and contextualization.

Unlike alcohol, for which there is a close correlation between blood-alcohol content and impairment, there is no defined standard of impairment for cannabis.

Determining whether or not these drivers were impaired by cannabis is further complicated by the fact tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) - the primary psychoactive component in cannabis - can be detected in the blood several days or even weeks after consuming cannabis.

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City has issued 854 tickets to pot shop operators

More than 50 illegal marijuana dispensaries continue to operate in Vancouver despite the city issuing 854 tickets to owners who refuse to close their doors, according to new statistics provided to the Courier this week.

The city has also filed 27 injunctions in court in an effort to shut down some of the 54 premises, which are operating without a business licence. The tickets are worth $250 each and, in some cases, were issued multiple times to a dispensary.

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Consultation process falls short, says Joji Kumagai.

On Sept. 21, Vancouver Coastal Health's chief medical health officer announced the location of two proposed supervised injection sites for the Downtown Eastside, both of which are slated to open in early 2017 in Strathcona.

As the representative body of 450 businesses, the Strathcona Business Improvement Association (SBIA) welcomes the opportunity for meaningful consultation on this important matter. But so far, what our community - - comprising 9,000 residents and 7,000 employees - has been afforded to date borders on shameful.

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School board wants to see Narcan kits in high schools.

Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows school board is looking to the province to put Narcan kits in every high school in B.C.

The motion to bring anti-overdose kits to local high schools passed unanimously at last night's school board meeting, led by school trustee Susan Carr.

Carr told The TIMES more needs to be done to combat the overdose crisis hitting cities and towns across the province, including in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.

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Compassion clubs could be exempted from new city pot shop regulations prohibiting the consumption of cannabis on site.

In a motion to be discussed next week, councillors Marianne Alto, Jeremy Loveday and Charlayne Thornton-Joe are proposing that the new Cannabis-related Business Regulation Bylaw be amended to provide an exemption for on-site cannabis consumption for compassion clubs established before 2009 and that have continuously operated since 2009.

In their motion, the three councillors note that the compassion clubs "have operated without incident for decades, providing non-profit service for Victorians requiring medical cannabis, including the option of consuming cannabis onsite."

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One in five youth report heavy alcohol and marijuana use - frequently driving while impaired - and are concerned about their growing dependency, according to a new study.

The report Changes and Challenges, which highlights a decade of observations of the health and well-being of young adults in British Columbia, was produced by Island Health and the University of Victoria.

The study spans a decade, from 2003-2013, of repeat interviews with 662 people from Greater Victoria as a random sample of youth from age 12 to 18.

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Dispensaries deemed 'retail stores,' leading to zoning violation notices

Ottawa bylaw officers are the latest authorities to take a swat at the pot shops popping up around town.

Two dispensaries have received notices of zoning violations for operating "retail stores" in industrial zones. City inspectors are also investigating the takeout window in a boarded-up pot shop to see if the operation violates the building code.

It adds another piece to the puzzle over what can - or should - be done about the illegal dispensaries. There are now 17 pot shops in town.

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Vancouver's licensing regulations for marijuana dispensaries favour non-profits

Reefer retail is a growth industry in Vancouver, with annual revenues estimated in the hundreds of millions in Canada's first major city to regulate dispensaries.

And, due to what a prominent cannabis lawyer calls a "peculiarity" of Vancouver's dispensary regulations, millions of dollars of commerce flow through non-profit societies every year.

In Vancouver, where companies cannot apply for dispensary licences, most pot shops working their way through the city's licensing process are incorporated as nonprofit societies.

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B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake wants the federal government to take action to stop other countries from smuggling deadly fentanyl into Canada. Meanwhile, a Nanaimo physician is pushing the provincial government to step up funding for drug-addiction clinics.

B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake lies awake at night worrying and wondering why the federal government is allowing other countries to smuggle deadly fentanyl into our country.

"There's a headline in the Kamloops paper today," Lake said in an interview last Friday. "A young man at a wedding using cocaine and he died. And this is a story we've heard again and again and again. That is not addiction. This is poisoning."

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As the fentanyl crisis continues to kill people across B.C., the province's judges must decide whether those who sell the powerful opioid deserve a harsher punishment. However, some lawyers and criminologists warn that the criminal courts are an ineffective solution to the war on drugs.

A Campbell River provincial court judge recently ruled that the presence of fentanyl in a drug seizure was an aggravating factor that led to a 12-month jail sentence for 23-year-old Tylor Michael James Derycke, who was selling drugs to feed his own addiction.

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Crown counsel suggested letter to traffickers was a bad idea

Abbotsford Police Chief Bob Rich wants to find a way to bring the full weight of the law down on opioid dealers whose customers overdose and die.

Rich told Abbotsford council Monday that he had penned a letter to drug dealers warning them that they could be charged with extremely serious crimes if their customers suffer fatal overdoses.

But Rich said that Crown counsel thought the letter, as written, was not a good idea. Nevertheless, Rich said he's still looking at ways to deter drug dealers with the threat of charges beyond simply trafficking and was considering modifying the letter for distribution.

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As overdose-related deaths are on the rise, Maple Ridge services and advocates are looking to create strategies of prevention in the community.

Following a recent case of fentanyl-related overdoses that put nine young people in hospital in a matter of 20 minutes in Delta, it was made clear to Strong Kids Team co-chair Susan Carr that fentanyl is reaching far and wide across the region, bearing no mind to age.

According to Fraser Health statistics presented at a recent forum organized by the team, Maple Ridge will see a predicted total of 10 more fatal overdoses by the end of 2016, in addition to the 20 deaths that have already hit close to home for residents.

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A 15-year-old Metis boy died in a court-ordered program in Campbell River last year after his desperate parents turned to the youth justice system for help with their son's drug addiction, a new report shows.

B.C.'s child watchdog says in the report that Nick Lang ended up in court after falling through cracks in the youth mental health and addictions system.

"He was a teen in serious distress who did not receive the specific supports he needed when he needed them - and neither did his family," writes Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, B.C.'s representative for children and youth.

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The medical marijuana bylaw regulating the siting and construction of medical marijuana production facilities within the area of the Kitimat-Stikine regional district is set to be adopted by its board at its October meeting after several public hearings found no objections during the course of the year.

Public hearings held in Terrace and Hazelton in July and September were to consider submissions from the public and hear any concerns.

No submissions were received.

Those who attended the hearings - nine people July 19, one person in Hazelton July 20 and three people Sept. 7 - had no concerns with the bylaw, said notes in the regional district's September meeting agenda.

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