POT LAW CHANGE IN THE AIR
B.C. rolls out cannabis plans
In spite of trail-blazing by several U.S. states, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth seems intent on turning B.C.’s journey to cannabis legalization — a bright future of jobs, tax windfalls and the end of pernicious prosecutions — from a good trip into a bummer.
The sprawling omnibus legislation the top cop tabled Thursday in the legislature continued the mishandling by both senior levels of government of the transition from nearly a century of enforcing a criminal prohibition to a marijuana-friendly economy.
In the province that is a global Pot Cultural Capital, the tonedeafness is unbelievable unless you imagine Farnworth as Sgt. Stedenko in a Cheech and Chong skit.
The proposals confirmed what the public safety minister announced earlier this year — that the legal age will be 19, the provincial liquor gang will wholesale and retail cannabis (though public stores will not sell it alongside alcohol or cigarettes), private outlets will be allowed where municipalities permit, and a whole new series of pot offences are created as well as an immediate roadside prohibition scheme.
Farnworth played Sgt. Schultz when asked about pricing: why no edibles available until next year?, why no date for legalization?, what is the technology for roadside testing ? I know nothing!
Two years after a federal election that promised legal reefer, all we’ve seen are former politicians, cops and bureaucrats cash in on pot stocks and those in government appear to think it is an excuse for a public-sector hiring spree — a new provincial community-safety unit targeting illegal sellers, a director of cannabis control, cannabis warehouse staff, more cops, more firefighters, more municipal inspectors.
The way we are going more people are going to end up prosecuted for cannabis offences under legalization than under the laws we’re scrapping.
As far as providing legal recreational cannabis, well, I guess they’ll get around to that eventually.
Washington state pioneered legalized marijuana in Dec. 2012 and opened their first retail store in July 2014. It’s not exactly splitting the atom — how difficult was it for B.C. to call them up and ask how they did it? Why all this apparent headscratching?
Where is there any grown-up discussion about nurturing this new green industry, promoting pot tourism, stimulating medical research, helping those involved in the black market come out of the shadows — isn’t that why we were doing this?
Instead, as Kyla Lee of Acumen Law, one of the leading lawyers on these issues has pointed out, we’ve got driving laws being proposed when there isn’t even proven technology to enforce them.
At the moment, we have no reliable saliva tests for cannabis consumption that tell us what we need to know — the level of impairment. Unlike alcohol, the science around defining and detecting pot impairment is in its infancy.
“It’s something we believe needs to be communicated with the provinces ASAP,” Farnworth said. “The feds have told us there is technology they are confident in, but we have yet to know what exactly it is.”
His claim that Ottawa knows best is worrying — the Supreme Court of Canada approved the Immediate Roadside Prohibition program for alcohol because properly maintained hand-held devices were deemed reliable after years of use.
That the government is writing new laws based on devices it can’t even identify does not inspire confidence.
Drug-impaired driving is already a crime and addressed in legislation; this new scheme will only make a lot more work for lawyers and inevitable pain for a lot of drivers, especially since this approach could also get them busted at the border.
Drivers can lie all they like when asked by a customs officer if they have ever consumed illegal drugs, but, as with an alcohol driving ban, a roadside prohibition for cannabis impairment will appear on the standard computer check exposing them.
Unlike alcohol, which isn’t a reason for exclusion from America, pot use is.
From his reaction, Farnworth thought it’s amusing cannabis was going to be legal in B.C. and Washington state but illegal at the U.S. border crossings between the two jurisdictions. Hilarious.
Premier John Horgan said in advance of this legislative package that some would say his government didn’t go far enough, some that they went too far and he thought they’d have to amend and modify some of it over time.
Then there are people like me who think that along with Ottawa, the province is screwing the whole thing up and should have figured out what was needed before introducing measures that could cause real harm.