Researchers hope to help policy-making process

With 7 ½ months until marijuana becomes legal in Canada, a group of Saskatchewan researchers hopes to help inform the complicated policy-making process the provincial government faces in the months to come.

The Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (JSGS), based at universities in Regina and Saskatoon, has released a report, Legalizing & Regulating Cannabis in Saskatchewan.

The provincial government is responsible for setting up all of the details of a legal cannabis industry, and should have most of the work in place by June 30.

“It’s not going to be easy. I think anything is possible. But it requires clear thinking,” said Jerome Konecsni, an author of the report and a Saskatoon-based executivein-residence at JSGS.

“By writing this report, hopefully (we) provide a really good sense of what needs to be done and what the challenges and what the opportunities are.”

“We’re hoping that the policy and the research that we’ve done will help facilitate some of that decision making,” added co-author George Hartner, a lecturer in the University of Regina economics department.

The six co-authors — also including Derrick Callan, Jason Childs, Cynthia Bojkovsky and Kathleen McNutt — have been working since July to research and write the 96page report, which offers 40 recommendations to policy-makers on how they might proceed.

On July 1, the federal government plans to legalize production, distribution and sale of cannabis.

To make this work, the authors suggest forming a committee of stakeholders, made up of various levels of government, producers, retailers, various government ministries, health professionals and First Nations.

Considerations run the gamut from legal age for usage to addressing impaired driving, production, processing, market distribution, traceability, quality control and development of new strains, among others.

It has to be a collaborative and flexible process. How the legal industry will compete with the illegal market is a big question for Hartner and Konecsni.

“If the illicit market continues after legalization, we won’t see any of the economic benefits,” said Hartner.

Using data from Colorado and other jurisdictions where cannabis is legal, Hartner and Childs estimated there will be a demand ranging from 20 to 40 million grams of cannabis per year. A sale of 25 million grams would generate $25 million in tax revenues and $250 million in economic benefits.

That tax revenue will be necessary for investing in public education, additional policing and enforcement, said Konecsni. Additional health professionals will also be required.

The report recommends a market structure similar to liquor retail — allowing a limited amount of retail licenses in order to limit consumption.

It suggests private retailers versus public for a better consumer experience in terms of variety, price and quality.

It also suggests a single, regulated, private distributor that can oversee product tracking and management, to ensure that cannabis in stores is legally sourced and safe.

It also recommends that the distributor work with local firms to develop a production market.

“Ideally we would like to see a Saskatchewan production market for cannabis, in a type of craft cannabis market,” said Hartner.

“Why would people move from the illicit marketplace into a legal market?” asked Konecsni. “The product has to be safer, it has to be better and it has to be accessible, if you’re going to have any success in moving people away from the illicit market, which is what the government wants to do.”

Konecsni suggests creating a Saskatchewan brand, and “build(ING) the brand identity around security, safety, better quality, reliable numbers. … The whole system of quality control can be your brand.”

“You have a level of sophistication in the Saskatchewan agricultural community that could accommodate this perhaps more readily than other jurisdictions in Canada and around the world,” added Konecsni.

“If we can be the first people with a brand of a product that is seen as the best … if we are allowed to ship to other provinces, that means Saskatchewan will be a leader in that industry.

“And if you’re going to be in something, I always like to be a the front of the parade rather than at the back.”