Council eyes solutions to medical marijuana services

Bylaw being drafted to provide regulations ahead of court decision

Calgary planners hope to draft bylaw amendments regulating medical marijuana counselling services by the end of the year in advance of a looming Supreme Court decision that could trigger similar businesses to proliferate across the city.

Councillors Diane Colley-Urquhart and Gian-Carlo Carra introduced a motion earlier this year asking administration to develop new rules to prevent such businesses from clustering in neighbourhoods and to keep them away from schools.

Calgary’s existing business-use and land-use bylaws don’t have a category to regulate medical marijuana counselling outfits — a service traditionally provided by doctors.

“We’re asking council to give us the authorization to go ahead and create this new definition, marijuana counselling,” said city planner Laurie Kimber, “and then find out what the appropriate land-use districts are that it should be located in, and what the rules should be for it,”

“We do need to introduce some clarity on this use and provide some clear rules,” Kimber said.

“Both for the people who want to open those businesses and the public in terms of knowing what is and what is not allowed.”

Medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal in Canada.

But federal rules allow patients with prescriptions to access medicinal marijuana by mail through registered grow operations.

At least one company that helps patients navigate federal regula- tions and connects them with licensed commercial growers has set up in Calgary.

The opening of 420 Clinic in Inglewood triggered complaints by the area community association, which opposed the clinic’s permit applications over fears it could become a dispensary.

The federal government has moved to end its controversial Medical Marijuana Access Regulations program that allowed patients, or a designated grower, to legally produce a limited supply in their homes.

Medical professionals, patients, police and municipalities heavily criticized the MMAR program over health, crime and product quality concerns.

In 2013, Health Canada announced it would end the program and replace it with a system allowing patients with a doctor’s prescription to buy marijuana through a federally approved commercial grower.

However, that plan was thwarted last year when a federal court judge issued a temporary injunction until a constitutional challenge against the new commercial program is heard.

Until that injunction is lifted, MMAR licences remain valid for the grow operations.

Kimber expects the court to make a ruling by the end of the year.

“If the MMAR is allowed to lapse and everyone has to buy commercially then there’s going to be all these people out there looking for help on what kind of medical marijuana to purchase,” said Kimber.

“That’s why we want to get these rules in place.”