The federal government's proposed bill for legalizing marijuana expands police powers, sets new mandatory penalties for illegal possession, and boosts prison sentences for lawbreakers. That all sounds pretty tough.

But the legislation also downloads some difficult decision-making on to provincial authorities, and from there on to municipalities and local police. That part's going to be tougher.

For example: Where will legal cannabis be sold? The 130-page federal bill leaves this crucial detail to the province. Will it be in your local liquor store? At a corner store but hidden, like cigarettes? From some other outlet? Mail order only? And how close to a school or youth centre can sales take place? About all we know is you can't sell cannabis from a vending machine.

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This time next year will be the last 4/20 - the unofficial cannabis holiday known by its numeric calendar date - when possessing weed for personal use will be a crime. Legalization is coming to Canada in the summer of 2018.

So far, reactions to legalized cannabis have ranged from healthy concern to outright fearmongering. Some people have claimed it will lead the youth astray, make our roads less safe and harm our overall health.

Legalizing cannabis is not without risk. But legalization can also address how risky our current approach, the so-called War On Drugs, has been.

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With legalization on the horizon, today's 4/20 gathering will be a celebration

For as long as anyone can remember, the annual 4/20 gathering at the Manitoba legislature grounds was about protesting the country's harsh marijuana laws. Police would be out in force to keep an eye on a rag-tag group of stoners, rarely arresting anyone unless things got out of hand.

This year's event, which begins at noon today, has a much more celebratory tone since legislation is in the works to legalize the recreational use of pot.

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Like clockwork, buds burn on April 20-but in light of the federal government's marijuana legalization plans, the organizer of Winnipeg's 4/20 event says the tone has changed.

"For the longest time, cannabis-related events were protests-especially 4/20-that had kind of hit a stalemate," said local cannabis advocate Steven Stairs. "We show up once a year, (authorities) let us do this, and we're probably showing up next year because nothing's changing….

"Well, this year things are actually changing."

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We cannot have a future pot policy that doesn't deal with criminalized pasts.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale has said that the new pot legislation will not include any special amnesty for past convictions.

This is a mistake.

The government's proposed legislation follows a public health approach of reducing harm and preventing problematic drug use. But the legislation, which is slated to come into effect by July 1, 2018, cannot just serve future drug users - and businesses, for that matter. It should also serve the health and wellbeing of the young, racialized men and women who are currently in court and in prison on drug charges.

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Jim Warren should have told us what age he figures is old enough to join the army to kill and die for your country if he figures the government should be protecting children from cannabis until they are 21.

I figure if you're old enough to kill or die for your country, you're old enough to engage in vices. Governments were never intended to protect children from adult vices. It is the duty of parents to instill ethics and morals in their children, not the state.

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Irony, hypocrisy and cops. Nothing good can come from this trio when all three are put in play.

On Monday morning, for example, with no reference to his late father being the moving force behind it, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a statement celebrating the 35th anniversary of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"I remind Canadians that we have no task greater than to stand on guard for another's liberties," said Trudeau.

"The words enshrined in the Charter are our rights, freedoms, and - above all - our collective responsibility."

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Province has concerns about pot legalization but next moves remain unknown

MANITOBA - Justice Minister Heather Stefanson says she has "lots of concerns" with the federal government's new legalized marijuana legislation tabled Thursday, but won't speculate publicly what Manitoba's next move will be.

"We want to listen to Manitobans and consult on that," she told reporters Thursday.

The federal government's proposed law, which sets the minimum age to purchase marijuana at 18, gives provinces some latitude to increase that age, but Stefanson declined to say whether she believes 18 is too young to buy marijuana.

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The Liberals owe young Canadians their majority government. They have an obligation to address the issues youth are facing right now.

Get the brownie batter mixing, folks. We've got a landing date for marijuana legalization.

July 2018. Yes, 2018.

Okay, maybe put the batter in the freezer for the time being.

Finally, Trudeau government officials have confirmed that this month they will announce legislation to legalize the recreational use of weed by July 1, 2018.

Obviously, this is a cause that many young Canadians from coast to have been fighting for and whining about for years, if not decades. So much so that giving Canadians the right to light up a bowl or roll a joint was a central promise during Justin Trudeau's election campaign, designed to lure young Canadian voters and portray the Liberals as Canada's youthful party.

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Dana Larsen and his group on tour giving out seeds

The man who's helped ship millions of cannabis seeds across the country for the last couple years is visiting Winnipeg Monday to drop off tens of thousands more.

B.C.-based cannabis advocate Dana Larsen, 45, is touring cross-country with his group Overgrow Canada, which aims to hand out five million cannabis seeds this year.

In 2016, they spread 2.5 million seeds, encouraging Canadians to plant cannabis in public places like parks to "normalize the cultivation" of the plant, Larsen said in an interview Monday.

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Emerys, Magder deserve medals (my dad, too)

Maybe one day Marc and Jodie Emery will be on a postage stamp. As opposed to in jail.

There's a fine line between heinous criminal and heroic pioneer, eh?

Unless you've been in a coma, or totally wasted, you know the Emerys are Canada's prince and princess of pot.

They were busted last month for trafficking and possession - 20 charges between them - as they were about to depart Toronto's Pearson airport for a pot festival in Spain.

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PARTICIPANTS in the annual 4/20 event at the Manitoba Legislative Building are likely to be in an even more celebratory mood this year as the federal Liberal government is poised to introduce legislation to make good on its promise to legalize pot.

The April 20 bash, which extols the consumption of cannabis - especially the smoking of it - may also have a more political undertone as local medical marijuana advocates protest a lack of consultation by the Pallister government before introducing a bill last week setting out new rules to deal with cannabis when legalization occurs.

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As news leaked Sunday of the federal government's plans to table legislation legalizing marijuana by next summer, Eddy Barahona was emerging from a night spent in jail after being arrested and charged with pot-related offences.

"I don't understand how we can arrest people for practising with medicine or why we're still putting people in jail for something that's going to be legalized in a matter of time," he said in an interview Monday.

Barahona was rubbing his eyes, which still stung from being pepper-sprayed over the weekend, during an interview Monday at Vapes Off Main.

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IT'S only a matter of time before marijuana sales will be legalized in our country and that means the Pallister government has some important decisions to make.

This past week, the Manitoba government tabled the Cannabis Harm Prevention Act. We are very pleased the government is talking about the legalization of marijuana and taking steps to ensure public safety is kept in the highest regard. The legislation is focused on ensuring Manitobans are not allowed to smoke marijuana in public places, indoors or in vehicles. As well, it addresses the issue of driving while high. These are fundamental matters of public safety, but if the government truly wants to ensure social responsibly, it has to recognize the need to keep the sale of this controlled substance public.

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Marijuana advocate says introduction of Bill 25 is a step backward for Manitoba

The political component of the 4/20 event in Winnipeg often gets overlooked in the haze of marijuana smoke.

Initially an act of civil disobedience, there just isn't as much to counter in the cannabis culture's annual gathering these days.

The federal government is expected to table legislation this spring to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana, medical marijuana clinics are springing up around the city and are open about their services, and a recent poll found that 59% of Manitobans support legalization, the highest in the country.

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The Manitoba Minister of Justice's move to get out in front of the marijuana legalization train-wreck is to be applauded. However, if the federal government does remove marijuana possession from the Criminal Code the costs of enforcement fall to the provinces. If the province involves itself in the distribution of marijuana, something the feds are unlikely to do, the cost to education the public on marijuana harms and risks will also fall to the provinces, who will have no choice but to spend massively or face liability for failure to warn, as they will have become part of the problem, rather than the solution. Add the increase costs to health care and insurance, and a decline in productivity, and legalization becomes a recipe for provincial financial disaster. For what - so a small minority can get temporarily high? Seriously!

Pamela McColl



(A small minority is already getting "temporarily" high.)

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Too many people getting behind wheel with drugs in their system

As federal legalization of marijuana seems more and more like an inevitability, a new poll commissioned by Manitoba Public Insurance shows 10% of Manitobans drive with drugs in their system.

The roadside survey was conducted in September 2016 in five Manitoba communities, including Winnipeg, and found 10% of drivers who voluntarily participated tested positive for drugs, more than half of those testing positive for cannabis.

Of the 1,230 drivers who participated, 124 tested positive for a drug, with 53% of those positive for cannabis and 31% for cocaine.

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While it seems out of context for a career progressive, Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson has gone law-and-order rogue in his quest to stem the plague of fentanyl overdoses and deaths in the nation's capital.

He wants manslaughter charges laid against drug dealers if the illicit narcotics they peddle end up causing death.

And he is not wrong in wanting this.

The time is now to stop whistling past the graveyard, and ignoring the fact there is a fentanyl crisis that is not going away anytime soon - aided by the fact the lethal drug, 50 to 100 times more powerful than heroin, is being laced into counterfeit pain killers disguised as known prescription narcotics of specific strengths.

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The Addictions Foundation of Manitoba is urging the federal government to use a public health approach matched with strict regulation when legalizing marijuana.

"This provides us with a very unique opportunity," said Dr. Sheri Fandrey of the AFM, which released a position statement Tuesday. "This is the first time since Prohibition that a substance which is currently illegal is becoming legal and fortunately the process has enough lead time that we can get ahead of the curve and start to provide some of the resources - educational, outreach, data collection - - prior to the change happening and cannabis being made legal.

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An advocate for Winnipeg's homeless and addicted population says the city is in "denial" about its injection drug problem.

Rick Lees, executive director of Main Street Project, looks at other large urban centres in Canada and says Winnipeg is lagging behind in addressing its hard drugs problem.

"On the committees I sit on, it's always on the agenda for discussion, but that's all it is," Lees said. "We're where (other cities) were a year or two years ago. Ottawa is on the cusp of doing it, Toronto's mayor is out in support of it, Vancouver has been doing it for seven years now. In Manitoba, I think we're a bit in denial either because we're a smaller population or we just don't think it's that big a deal because it's not interfering with our mainstream lives."

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