Cannabis is one step closer to being legal.
According to the Cannabis Act introduced by the federal government last Thursday, legalization of the controversial plant will come into effect July 2018 — and now it’s up to the provinces and territories to sort out distribution and regulation.
The act sets a personal possession limit of 30 grams of legal dried cannabis, gives the province the power to set age limits, and calls for the creation of a carefully controlled supply chain complete with consistent rules and routine inspections.
There are multiple details still set to be ironed out, and the legislation’s finer details have yet to be debated, but essentially the law will allow cannabis consumption for both medical and recreational use while prohibiting its use by those under the age of 18.
So now the ball’s in B.C.’s court, and Nelson will have to communicate with the provincial government as they work to establish a distribution system for reliably getting cannabis to customers while keeping it out of the hands of youngsters.
‘We’ll need some help financially’
As far as Nelson Mayor Deb Kozak is concerned, this move is long overdue. With six dispensaries currently operating downtown, her council has been faced with a political conundrum: how do you regulate an illegal industry, especially if you don’t have the cash to do so?
“This issue has dominated local agendas for the last two and a half years, and that’s frustrating. It will be a relief when the regulations are set and we can move back to other priorities,” Kozak told the Star.
“But what happens on the ground here in the community, that will be the purview of local government and if the province is going to pile on regulations, then we’ll need some help financially to make that happen.”
Their current bylaw, which requires each dispensary to pay a $5,000 business license fee, will still be in place until the provincial regulations come into effect — and that might take a while.
“I think the community is feeling like we should ‘stay calm and carry on’, and people are moving forward in different ways.”
And will the city consider, as one resident suggested at a recent council meeting, growing its own cannabis?
“I think we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. That’s something for the Nelson community to consider, and I would love to hear what the community thinks about that.”
‘We all knew this was coming’
The Cannabis Act announcement thrusts pot into the provincial spotlight, making it one of the most prominent election issues, but Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall feels the issue will take a backseat to issues such as health care and education.
“This isn’t a surprise. We all knew this was coming,” she said.
“The province is supposed to be responsible for the bulk of regulation, just like with alcohol and tobacco, so in anticipation we in the NDP party started looking out how they’ve rolled out legalization in places such as Colorado and Washington to see what their challenges are, their best practices.”
She was interested to see edibles are one point of contention, and said there are a number of other facets to the legalization process that haven’t yet been explored.
“It’s early days. We want to do our due diligence and make sure our decisions are fact-based and fair. We’ll do our research, and if we form government we won’t be creating laws without (cannabis industry professionals) at the table.”
A baby step in the right direction
If Kozak had her way, the City of Nelson wouldn’t be involved in regulating the cannabis industry at all — and that’s what the Nelson Cannabis Compassion Club’s Phil McMillan wants too.
“I have this saying I live by, which is, ‘If you want the government to do something right then pray they don’t do anything at all,’” he said.
“This new Cannabis Act is definitely a step in the right direction, but that step is a baby step. There’s still so much stigma around this plant, and I keep asking people, ‘Can you name any other product that’s so heavily regulated but has never killed a single person?’ It’s silly.”
He noted that according to the penalties set out by the act, a Canadian citizen could be imprisoned for 14 years because they sold cannabis to someone underage — a punishment he feels is disproportionate.
“You’re facing more time for selling a 17-year-old a joint than someone who forces a five-year-old to have sex with an animal. How is that proportionate? There’s very little logic and sense to this act, and you can see it’s very political.”
He figures the federal government has passed the buck on to the provincial, territorial and municipal governments.
“This way they deliver on their promise without doing any work. The worry is we’re going to have a patchwork system across the country, with each government creating a different system based on their particular politics.”
Business community considers inclusion
Some of the currently existing pot dispensaries in Nelson have approached the Chamber of Commerce to join their ranks, but so far they’ve been turned away. According to executive director Tom Thomson, that will probably change soon.
“Certainly this is a positive move, because we don’t like to see a lot of people incarcerated and charged with something that’s much more socially acceptable than it used to be,” he said.
“But there are many people who feel that people in Nelson tend to flaunt it, and take advantage of the fact there’s not much enforcement, and there are concerns about people sitting in the heart of downtown and firing up a joint.”
He said, “A lot can happen between now and July 2018, but it does seem like the feds are moving in the right direction.”
And the biggest change will be making room for not just medical users, but those who want to consume it recreationally as well.
“Medical marijuana is one thing, but for recreational use provisions are going to be made for people who are, say, driving under the influence. There are definitely going to need to be tweaks and changes moving forward.”
And he hopes this won’t mean an influx of irresponsible behaviour.
“Whether it’s cigarette use or marijuana use or alcohol use, there’s a time and place for it — and downtown Nelson is not necessarily the best location.”
‘We’re your neighbours, we’re good people’
Kozak has mixed feelings about how the dispensary situation has played out, and she’s looking forward to some more clarity.
“When the feds said ‘legalize’, that turned a lot of wheels locally. We took a different approach here and a lot of that was based on what the community wanted, but we’ll see if that was the right approach,” she said.
“I wish it would’ve played out quicker at the federal level, but I understand these things take time.”
And though McMillan is celebrating some aspects of the new act, he doesn’t like that it brings with it continued stigma against people who consume marijuana.
“You hear ‘we’ve got to protect the kids from the nasty pot people’ but we’re your neighbours, we’re good people, and most people who smoke cannabis that’s the only law they break,” he said.
“We live with you guys. We’re not evil and you don’t need to protect your children from us.”
