IN DEFENCE OF LEGALIZED POT
McLellan talks to university law students
Chill out, Windsor.
The head of the task force which recommended Canada legalize cannabis said cities like Windsor need to prepare but that they shouldn’t fear going to pot.
While “people are right to be concerned” about how Ottawa proceeds with legalization and regulation, Anne McLellan told the Star that members of her task force were satisfied that places like Colorado and Washington — two of a growing number of American states where pot has been legalized — are going in the right direction.
Shortly after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last month that Canada will become the second country in the world to make the growing, possession and use of cannabis for personal use legal by July 1, 2018, Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens described a trip to Denver, Colorado, last summer and how “the riff-raff and the undesirables were rampant.” His comments caused a bit of a media stir in the state that ended marijuana prohibition four years ago.
McLellan said half her task force visited Denver and returned with useful information and no horror stories. She and the other half of the task force visited Seattle and Olympia in Washington State, cities she had visited before.
“Honestly, I don’t think any of us noticed any difference to what was going on there ... previously,” she said.
McLellan was speaking Friday at the University of Windsor’s Transnational Criminal Law in the Americas conference on the topic of From Prohibition to Regulation — the Way Forward. The former deputy prime minister and attorney general, who also held the justice and health portfolios during her tenure in government, once described marijuana as a “scourge” but in December reported back that legalization was the way to go.
The key, she said, is a proper regulatory regime that keeps cannabis out of the hands of children and youth and organized crime. Among the task force’s 80 recommendations: pot to remain illegal for those under 18 (provinces can set a higher age limit); additional supports for police and public education; tougher criminal penalties for everything from selling to minors to driving while impaired; no pot sales near such locations as schools, churches and community centres or where liquor is sold.
“This is going to happen ... everybody needs to be aware of the implications,” she said.
While the federal and provincial governments have much to do in setting rules and guidelines, McLellan said municipalities and their police departments need to get started at the local level. The former Alberta MP said her city of Edmonton has already begun a review of municipal bylaws. She said municipalities, for example, can decide where to permit retail outlets, but she warns that it’s “a very bad idea” to concentrate them all in a single district.
In her Windsor lecture, McLellan compared Canada’s current cannabis regime to the one that existed during Prohibition nearly a century ago. Addiction, delinquent behaviour and work absenteeism were some of the reasons for making booze illegal, but she said the resulting unintended consequences included the growth of organized crime, disrespect for the law and courthouse backlogs.
“Prohibition made drinking cool,” she said, adding that the costs of criminalizing alcohol became greater than the benefits.
McLellan said the nine-member task force received about 30,000 submissions from the public and heard from representatives of approximately 350 organizations. She said the medical community initially wanted the minimum age set at 25, but then compromised and suggested 21. The policing community was concerned about gauging impairment and with the recommendation to permit people to grow their own cannabis at home.
McLellan explained that Canadian 18-year-olds can vote and join the military without parental consent, and many at that age can legally smoke tobacco and purchase alcohol. She said many illegal users grow their own pot and that 18- to 25-year-olds represent the largest cohort of cannabis consumers. Setting the minimum age at above 18, she added, would mean continuing to see large numbers of youths in the criminal justice system for simple possession.