The muddled mess of marijuana regulations
Vancouver is not the villain it’s being made out to be by Rona Ambrose, but neither is it the freedom-bearing hero that we need
It’s all a little confusing. A decision by Vancouver city council to regulate and license marijuana dispensaries has been vehemently opposed by federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose. In the lead-up to the passage of the bylaw, Ambrose warned that the new regulation would increase marijuana use and addiction. Once it passed, she stated that she was “deeply disappointed” and that “storefronts selling marijuana are illegal and under this Conservative government will remain illegal.”
The confusion comes in because at the same time as the federal government was conjuring up visions of an explosion of pot consumption, Vancouverites’ options for obtaining medicinal marijuana were being rather dramatically curtailed. The bylaw requires marijuana dispensaries to obtain a costly $30,000 license and to be spaced at least 300 metres away from schools, community centres, houses and other stores selling marijuana.
Those conditions are not easily met and are expected to cause at least a quarter of Vancouver’s existing pot dispensaries to close. One medicinal marijuana producer in Nanaimo has already laid off 61 workers as a result of the changes. Add in the bylaw’s ban on marijuana edibles (e.g., pot brownies or candy), and it’s especially hard to understand how the move could realistically be viewed as fuel for increased marijuana use.
But it seems sensible to explore the reasons we’ve arrived at such confusion, too. It seems to me there is an ironic lesson in this demonstration that the surest way to maim any indus- try — including one that has failed to be cowed by billions of dollars worth of law-enforcement activity — is to simply impose on it a typical municipal regulatory burden.
That’s funny because it’s true, as a character from The Simpsons might say. But it’s also evidence that we’re still searching for a sensible way to reconcile the desire to allow adults to make their own choices about their own bodies, with the desire to protect kids and society from the scourges of addiction.
Marijuana poses some risks, especially to young people whose brains are still developing. Yet it’s becoming increasingly clear to most people, if not to this Conservative government, that the unintended ill consequences of marijuana criminalization give the drug’s own ill effects a serious run for their money. And marijuana has its virtues, including an ability to relieve suffering for people who are ill.
If one reviews the Supreme Court of Canada’s recent unanimous decision that possession and production of medicinal marijuana cannot be restricted to dried cannabis — in other words, that if you’re a cancer patient with a prescription for medical marijuana, the government can’t demand you smoke the substance rather than eat it — one is struck by the degree to which the current legal regime is a muddled mess. Now, cancer patients who are too nauseated to smoke may legally possess the pot brownies that offer them considerable relief, but they’d better be proficient at cannabis baking because no one is allowed to sell them the confections. It’s still illegal to sell medicinal marijuana edibles.
Last month, the ailing cancer patient might nonetheless have found suitable pot brownies in one of about 100 Vancouver dispensaries, since police weren’t actively enforcing that aspect of the criminal law. But now that a municipal bylaw that stands to make the city considerable cash has come into play, and has taken a dire view of edibles, obtaining pot brownies at a dispensary in the city is no longer a likely option.
So this much-maligned indirect recognition of an illegal substance simply makes things more difficult for those with a real, recognized medical need for marijuana, as well as for everybody else. Is that progress? If so, it’s mainly for the city of Vancouver’s coffers, as far as I can tell. To the extent it’s a win for others, Rona Ambrose and those who agree with her that everybody’s ability to access marijuana should be as limited as possible, come next to mind.
When the British Columbia government defends its ban on citizens buying private medical insurance, it says it is protecting the province’s health system. When the Vancouver government defends its ban on marijuana edibles in medicinal marijuana dispensaries, it says it’s protecting the city’s children. But who’s protecting sick Canadians of all ages — and their right to seek medical treatment and solace from suffering?
Vancouver is not the villain it’s being made out to be by Ambrose and company, but neither is it the freedom-bearing hero that we need.