Age limit for pot a balancing act, MD says
Safety, uncertainty over long-term effects are primary considerations
Recommending 18 as the legal age for using marijuana was a pragmatic compromise between health research and the reality that young people form the largest group of users, according to a B.C. member of the federal task force on legalizing pot.
The group released its final report Tuesday with 80 recommendations on how to legalize marijuana, including the call for sales to be limited to buyers 18 and over.
That was a compromise between health research that finds marijuana use by anyone under 25 can be harmful and an understanding by the task force that young people smoke a lot of pot, said Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C.’s chief medical health officer.
“So banning smoking by the age group 19 to 25, who are the heaviest users and smoke most of it, is basically going to criminalize them all,” said Kendall, who was on the panel that wrote the final report. “You don’t want people who are ignoring the laws, but neither do you want to drive them to the black market.”
The task force recommendations suggest provinces set their own minimum age for recreational marijuana use, and Kendall favours age 19 in B.C. to align with the age for tobacco and alcohol.
B.C. Solicitor General Mike Morris said the province is reviewing the federal report and will focus on safety as its priority in establishing provincial rules.
“The thing that’s foremost in mind for us is the health of British Columbians. We want to make sure that this is a healthy product for everybody and that everybody is safe in using this.”
Kendall said while the “evidence is less than clear” to support some of marijuana’s medical uses, there is plenty of evidence that the earlier young people start smoking cannabis, and the more they smoke, “the less well they do in society and school.”
Safety and uncertainty over health effects were also primary considerations in recommendations to limit access to stores that do not sell alcohol or tobacco.
“We think the alcohol model is really a commercial one, promoting alcohol,” Kendall said. “Putting it in a liquor store would really turn it into a commercialized, promotional market.”
However, an alliance of the Government and Service Employees Union, which represents B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch employees, and the Private Liquor Store Association, argued liquor stores would be the most responsible distribution network.
“Liquor store employees know how to safely retail a controlled substance and have a strong record of controlling access to minors,” said BCGEU president Stephanie Smith.
Pharmacy companies believe their already highly regulated businesses could play a role in secure distribution.
“The security of our supply chain is already in place nationally,” said John Tse, vice-president of pharmacy at London Drugs.
Among its recommendations, the federal panel recommended marijuana be sold in plain packaging, including edible marijuana, which should be prohibited in the form of candies that might be attractive to children.
On the supply side, the task force wants a “seed-to-sale tracking system” that would prevent diversion of marijuana to the black market, but also recommended people be allowed to grow up to four plants for personal consumption.
The recommendations were welcomed by Vancouver dispensaries, which see an opportunity to emerge from the grey area of the city’s licensing system.
“We are very, very pleased. Very, very happy,” said Jessika Villano, manager of the Buddha Barn, a non-profit compassion club dispensary at 2179 West 4th Ave. in Kitsilano. “It means there will continue to be a very safe place for our customers to come to.”
Vancouver city Coun. Kerry Jang said the recommendations were “mostly positive,” mirroring restrictions the city put in its dispensary-licensing system.
But he took issue with home growing, which would be regulated by local government.
“They don’t say how we’re going to pay for that,” Jang said. “We’re going to be very aware of any downloading of … policing costs or enforcement costs.”
An executive at Tilray, one of B.C.’s licensed medical marijuana producers said he was encouraged by the recommendations, which focus on education, research and the elimination of illicit production.
“What’s been very difficult to tolerate over the past number of years has been an illicit market that doesn’t have to follow any of the rules in regard to the production and the retailing of (medical marijuana),” said president Brendan Kennedy.
However, legalization opponent Pamela McColl of the advocacy group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, called the recommendations a disaster.
“This is going to take out a generation,” said McColl, who compared the potential harm to people under 25 to the damage caused by thalidomide in the early 1960s.
“We are going to find a way to sue them,” McColl said.