Pot laws a challenge for government
They say B.C.’s pot laws have taken so long to sort out because May’s provincial election delayed the process.
Either that, or our guys were hot-boxing a van behind the legislature and simply forgot to get it done.
In any case, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth left more questions than answers Monday when, rather than unveiling the regulations many expected, he merely announced a public consultation process.
Ontario might already have its pot plans in place, but here in the birthplace of B.C. Bud, we prefer a more relaxed approach: We’ll gather information from stakeholders and the public, or maybe listen to a little Allman Brothers, until Nov. 1.
Here’s what we know as the July 2018 legalization of recreational marijuana nears. It will be up to Ottawa to determine who grows it. It will be up to the provincial government to say how it gets distributed and sold.
Some stuff will be standard across the province: enforcement, possession limits, distribution, the age at which pot is legal. Ottawa has set age 18 as the floor, but B.C. would probably harmonize that with the drinking age, currently 19.
How marijuana will be distributed (liquor stores? pharmacies? for-profit retailers?) has yet to be determined, though Farnworth did note that unlike other provinces, B.C. has a well-established network of pot shops. What he didn’t mention was that the city of Victoria has 9,637 of them, while its immediate neighbours have none.
That’s significant, as Farnworth, arguing that a “one size fits all” approach won’t work in a sprawling jurisdiction as diverse as B.C., hinted that individual municipalities will be left to determine whether and where retailers will be allowed in their communities.
That’s distinct from the model used to the south of us in Washington, where the state liquor and marijuana authority decides how many retailers can be licensed in a given community. (For example, Port Angeles, pop. 19,000, has been allocated three pot shops, while three more have been allowed in the rest of Clallam County.)
What about rural communities so small that the province allows liquor to be sold in a corner of the general store — will weed share the shelves with Canadian Club, toilet paper and spaghetti (or, more likely, Doritos)? What will happen to existing medical marijuana dispensaries, the old-school compassion clubs? (In Washington, they were folded into the recreational regime.) Will consumption be allowed in public? Confined to a private residence?
There really are a gazillion details to be worked out in a short period, given the dramatic shift legalization represents. This is all a long way from the days when Harold Hedd trucked through the pages of the Georgia Straight and $20 would buy a four-finger lid of what was probably half alfalfa.
Now the pot industry isn’t just mainstream but populated with people long associated with the other side of the fence. Christy Clark’s health minister, Terry Lake, recently announced he was joining a medical-marijuana company. In May, former Victoria police chief Frank Elsner announced he would do security consulting for marijuana businesses.
Former Toronto police chief Julian Fantino, a cabinet minister in the Harper government, has just teamed up with former RCMP deputy commissioner Raf Souccar in a business that will link medical marijuana users with licensed growers.
Government isn’t legalizing pot because it thinks smoking marijuana is a good idea. It’s doing so because criminalization A) hasn’t stopped those who want to smoke dope from doing so, and B) just funnels all the marijuana money to people willing to break the law.
That reality led Farnworth to caution against using pot as a cash cow for government.
Set pot taxes too high, or restrict access too tightly, and the black market will continue to flourish. The election really did delay B.C.’s pot rules, but best to take what time is left to get them right.