Pubdate: Thu, 21 Jan 2016
Source: Oshawa Express, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 Dowellman Publishing Corp
Contact:  http://www.oshawaexpress.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5299
Author: Graeme McNaughton

"EITHER LEGALIZE IT OR DECRIMINALIZE IT"

Federal government starts the process of legalizing recreational
marijuana use

Canada is on the path to a legalized and regulated cannabis market,
and for one UOIT professor, it's about time.

"I've been hoping for this for years," Dr. Judith Grant, the director
of UOIT's criminology program and an associate professor at the
university, tells The Oshawa Express.

"Here in Canada, we have the highest percentage of marijuana users in
the world. Either decriminalize or legalize it, do one or the other,
but for God's sake, stop mulling it over because you know you're
eventually going to do it. And if you're going to do it, do it in the
right way."

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Bill
Blair, the former Toronto police chief and now MP for Scarborough
Southwest, would be leading the marijuana legalization file.

As part of an election promise, Trudeau said he would look at
loosening the laws around marijuana, with the Liberal Party's platform
stating that "arresting and prosecuting these offenses is expensive
for our criminal justice system. It traps too many Canadians in the
criminal justice system for minor, non-violent offenses. At the same
time, the proceeds from the illegal drug trade support organized crime
and greater threats to public safety, like human trafficking and hard
drugs," and that the country's current laws don't keep marijuana out
of the hands of young people.

Grant says that should marijuana become legal in Canada, it must be
well regulated so that young people are unable to access it.

"What I see in terms of health concerns and social concerns is kids
get alcohol - they have to be 19 or over - but with weed, I don't know
where they're going to put it, if they're going to put it in liquor
stores or stores on the streets, which I don't think is a good idea,"
she says.

"And I think the main concern is young people getting a hold of it,
but yet it's going to happen, so it's going to have to be in special
places. It's going to have to be well regulated and very similar to
the purchasing of alcohol. I don't see much difference."

In the United States, marijuana is currently legal for recreational
sale and use in Colorado, Alaska and Washington. Uruguay became the
first country to legalize the sale and cultivation of recreational
marijuana in 2013.

Currently, marijuana is only legal in Canada for medical
use.

Separating medical use and recreational use

Currently, more than 50,000 people are registered to use marijuana
medically through the federal government. One of them is Marko
Ivancicevic, a medical marijuana advocate and chair of Oshawa's
medical marijuana working group. Ivancicevic says that while he
welcomes the news of marijuana possibly being legalized for
recreational use, he is concerned about how it may affect medical users.

"I would hope that they maintain the separation of medical use and
recreational use because we have to understand that when it comes to
the medical program, it's something that was induced by the courts.
The courts forced it upon the government for them to make medical
marijuana legal," Ivancicevic says of a 2000 Ontario Court of Appeals
decision that found that people have a constitutional right to use
marijuana as a medicine.

"The problem is that, in theory, let's say another government wins the
next election after Trudeau legalizes it, and they have a policy that
is a little bit more conservative, and they decide they want to remove
legalization of cannabis. They can do that. So then the problem
becomes if intertwine the two and make recreational and medical
sitting under the same guidelines and rules, there would be many, many
difficulties with the potential of another government revoking
legalization and potentially causing harm to individuals that once had
a medical licence."

Skipping steps

With the federal government now moving ahead with its campaign pledge
to legalize marijuana for recreational use, Oshawa MP Colin Carrie
says Trudeau and the Liberals haven't addressed how they'll deal with
potential safety concerns stemming from that change.

"How do we deal with this as far as impaired driving, for example.
There is some data coming out from Colorado and I think what's
happened since they legalized marijuana, fatal crashes have=C2=85doubled 
to
53 deaths," Carrie, the deputy health critic with the Conservatives,
tells The Oshawa Express. "When they survey kids, 17 per cent of high
school aged drivers reported driving a vehicle within an hour of using
marijuana. So, you're looking at how do the Liberals want to manage it
and test for it. No Liberal has come forward attempting to address
those issues."

Carrie also says he is concerned about marijuana being sold in other
forms, such as candies and other edible forms, as they would be more
attractive to younger people.

"How are they going to address issues like people who are making
cookies and candies, which would make the drug more attractive and
accessible to youth? Again, I think Colorado, the first year of
legalization, they had 45 kids rushed to poison control centres
because they ate marijuana-laced sweets, and they had to have their
stomachs pumped," Carrie says. "There's a lot of health issues here
and a lot of uncertainty. The science just isn't there, so to have
Bill Blair taking this file, for me, it's a contradiction to him
working for years of trying to keep it off the streets."

The Oshawa MP says that the Liberals, having announced that Blair
would be taking on the file just a few short months after the
election, are moving too quickly on this matter.

"We do have to look at educating, and that's where (the Conservatives)
focused on. As with the anti-drug strategy, we saw the use of
marijuana use decrease," Carrie says. "Even regular marijuana users
will say that it's not a good idea for youth to be consuming
marijuana, and the Liberals basically have to come clean and let us
know what their plan is because you can't just go into step two
without even looking at step one."
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MAP posted-by: Matt