Calgary looks to limit pot services

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 allow similar businesses to proliferate.

Councillors Diane Colley-Urquhart and Gian-Carlo Carra had asked administration to develop new rules to prevent such businesses from clustering in neighbourhoods and 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.

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 regulations and connects them with licensed growers has set up in Calgary.

That triggered complaints by the area’s 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.

Health Canada announced it would end the program and replace it with a system allowing patients with a prescription to buy marijuana through a federally approved grower.

That was thwarted last year when a federal court judge issued a temporary injunction until a constitutional challenge against the new plan is heard.

Kimber expects 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.