The opening of Parksville’s most recent medical marijuana dispensary has led to a vigorous debate within the community. As is typical with the subject, the discussion has generated less light than heat. Or smoke, if you will.
The immediate concern for the city’s civic leaders is the matter of whether WeeMedical Society even has a legal right to operate within Parksville. To that question, council voted an emphatic “No” during last week’s regular meeting at city hall.
The larger question, meanwhile, is pot’s future in Parksville and throughout the rest of the country, as the federal Liberal government sends smoke signals indicating it plans to develop a regulatory regime for legal possession and recreational use of the plant.
Marijuana has already been approved for use medically. But as the government continues to weed through its process — with few details and no timeline in sight — provincial and municipal governments are left to scramble to keep up with an industry that currently seems to be running one step ahead of regulators.
To that end, Parksville council made the right call with its second vote last week. That decision directs city staff to begin exploring its own potential regulatory regime in advance of any federal decision.
“At some point this is going to be approved, and we’re going to get caught,” councillor Leanne Salter noted.
An amendment forwarded by fellow councillor Kirk Oates would have pre-empted the approval of sale of recreational marijuana within the city core. Oates argued that, regardless of any federal decision, the city has the right to regulate all business within its own jurisdiction.
We’ll leave it to the lawyers to decide whether that is always the case, but the amendment was nipped in the bud by the majority of Oates’s fellow councillors.
That may prove to be a wise choice. The court of public opinion has weighed in and has delivered a verdict that Parksville council is collectively out of touch with its call to close WeeMedical, and deprive patients of an opportunity to purchase their medicine locally.
Then again, social media has proven less than reliable as a courthouse. The next municipal election may indeed show marijuana is not welcome in this community.
By all means, let the city deal with the current medical pot dispensary under its licencing and zoning bylaws. Other businesses have to abide by those regulations.
But this is not the time for local councils to be tying their own hands with respect to future acceptance of what may well become a legal enterprise.
— Parksville Qualicum Beach News
