Pubdate: Thu, 12 Mar 2015
Source: Oshawa This Week (CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Oshawa This Week
Contact:  http://www.durhamregion.com/oshawa-on-news
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1767
Author: Reka Szekely

OSHAWA CONSIDERS ACCESSIBILITY ISSUES AROUND MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Oshawa accessibility committee conducts education session for council
members on medical marijuana issues

Oshawa considers accessibility issues around medical
marijuana

OSHAWA -- Oshawa council got a crash course on the issue of medical
marijuana at a recent council special education session by members of
the Oshawa Accessibility Advisory Committee.

In 2013 the committee created a medical marijuana working group and
members of the group addressed council on March 2 and delivered a
slideshow presentation on issues related to medical marijuana.

Working group members Ben Fudge and Marko Ivancicevic outlined the
history of medical marijuana in Canada and highlighted some of the
issues that affect municipalities, including zoning for legal
marijuana production facilities and the licensing of vapor lounges.

Mr. Ivancicevic explains the motivation behind asking for a special
council meeting.

"Since medical marijuana had become an accessibly issue in 2011, there
really hadn't been an official discussion between OAAC and council on
medical marijuana," he said, noting there have been changes to the
federal government's medical marijuana regulations in recent years.
"It gave us the opportunity to talk to them about what the program is,
how it came about and to discuss how the municipality could play a
role in relation to the medical marijuana regulations."

Mr. Fudge noted that there has historically been a large number of
applications to Health Canada for the use of medical marijuana, which
can be used by people suffering from a number of conditions including
chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, anxiety and
people undergoing cancer treatment. Health Canada estimates as many as
50,000 were permitted to use medical marijuana in 2014.

"So many people were applying and the government wasn't expecting this
big influx of applications," said Mr. Fudge.

The federal government has instituted new rules regarding medical
marijuana that streamlined the application process, removing the need
for Health Canada to approve documents and instead giving physicians
the ability to issue a document stating an individual's
prescription.

The rules also affect the production of medical marijuana, aiming to
end small-scale personal production and moving to production by larger
companies licensed by the government.

However, a court injunction is currently allowing people to continue
to grow if they were licensed under the old federal program.

Councillors asked questions on a number issues, including whether
people should present proof of a Health Canada permit at a potential
vapour lounge.

Both Mr. Fudge and Mr. Ivancicevic are medical marijuana users
themselves and said there are privacy issues with that sort of
request. Mr. Ivancicevic points out the permit document contains
personal information such as addresses and doses.

"At the end of the day a lot of people don't necessarily talk about
what their disabilities are; some of the documentation you provide
proving that you have the right to consume would provide that
information ... in all honesty no one needs to be privy to that
information," said Mr. Ivancicevic following the meeting.

However, at the meeting Councillor Nancy Diamond said it seemed
illogical to license vapour lounges given that they could be the site
of illegal activity if there is no way to test that visitors to the
lounge have permits.

On the issue of zoning, Mr. Ivancicevic points out there is no
consistency among municipalities. In Leamington a medical marijuana
production facility operates under the agricultural greenhouse zone
while Clarington slots it in as a processing plant under industrial
zoning.

Oshawa has received one proposal for marijuana production in an area
with agricultural zoning.

"I hope they're able to draw a lot of information from (the education
session) and use that information when dealing with that application,"
said Mr. Ivancicevic.

Overall, he said the education session went well and hopes it promoted
better understanding of medical marijuana use.

"I think there needs to be a distinction between the recreational and
medicinal use of marijuana and unfortunately there are a lot of
stigmas attached to medical marijuana because people can't make the
distinction between the two."
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