Legal marijuana framework gives police forces a starting point
Calgary police chief Roger Chaffin said a proposed framework released by the province on legalized recreational cannabis this week is “a start” as police examine their next steps to prepare for July 1.
“On its first blush, there’s not a lot of detail in that yet, but at least the framework sets up at least an idea of where the province wants to go around age limits, around consumption levels, growing the plant, so there’s lots of areas there at least we can start to go to work on,” Chaffin said Friday.
“We don’t have that much time between now and when legalization occurs for us to really get ready in terms of understanding if there’s going to be any new legislation, any policy development, training that would have to occur before that time. So it’s nice to see we at least have that.”
Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley unveiled the government’s proposed framework for legal marijuana Wednesday. Alberta set 18 as the legal age for consumption and mandated that legal weed be sold only in stand-alone stores, with no sales of alcohol, tobacco or pharmaceuticals in the same facility.
Chaffin said the complexity for police is “what actually happens outside of the legal realm.”
“So when they said there’s 30 grams of legal possession that’s allowed, what happens when you exceed that amount? What happens when you exceed it by, say, five grams?
“We have to look at that — the grey area or the seam that happens between what’s legal and then what is deemed outside of the legal regime. Has that now become a legislative issue, a provincial matter, a criminal matter?”
Police also face a challenge when it comes to impairment.
“The cost of delivering the current regime of training for drug recognition experts is probably unsustainable if you have to present it service-wide,” Chaffin said.
“It’s very, very expensive, it’s very time consuming, and the likelihood that we can do that is difficult. So we’re looking for some support from some orders of government about if they intend for us to do that in the early days, is where are those supports going to come from to make that happen?”