Pubdate: Fri, 11 Mar 2016
Source: Intelligencer, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016, The Belleville Intelligencer
Contact: http://www.intelligencer.ca/letters
Website: http://www.intelligencer.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2332
Author: Jason Miller
Page: A1

REGULATION CHANGE MEANS NO POT VAPOR ON BUS

Medical marijuana users could end up in a lot of heat if they decide 
to light up or vaporize pot in public places, said local public 
health officials and area politicians.

Transit chairman Jack Miller said the province is now inching toward 
reversing rules permitting medical marijuana users to smoke their 
medicine in a variety of public places.

"Apparently, the Ontario government is going to clamp down on vaping 
medical marijuana," Miller said of the policy u-turn. "The 
legislation is about to be tightened up."

The new law had allowed medical users to smoke everywhere from 
offices, stadiums, movie theatres and even playgrounds packed with 
children, once a safe haven from such activity.

Miller said, "We need to see where the government has pulled back to 
know what we can or can't do, but it seems that we're going to have 
that opportunity to say no to vaping in public and on buses and, 
hopefully, that will extend to any public property."

Transit officials were tossed into a regulation conundrum after 
Christopher Hobin was asked to leave a city bus by police after he 
used his medical marijuana vaporizing device during a Dec. 23 bus 
ride, something he thought he was legally allowed to do following the 
passage of the new legislation.

The transit committee also heard from Roberto Almeida, food safety, 
health promotion and tobacco control manager, with Hastings Prince 
Edward Public Health.

Almeida consulted transit officials after reading The Intelligencer 
story regarding Hobin. "There's nothing in provincial law that 
prohibits vaping indoors in public places or workplaces," he said.

"In the case of the gentleman on the bus, when that happened before 
Christmas I think some people thought the act was already in effect, 
but it's not," Almeida said.

He said if the act does take effect later this year as currently 
drafted, it will afford leeway to transit operators and proprietors 
to have their own stringent policies to prevent vaping of medical marijuana.

The province has opened the door to public input and consultation, 
granting for people to comment on removing the exemptions granted.

"They are removing the exemption, allowing smoking in public places," 
Almeida said about the government's effort to clean up the bill 
before passing it into law.

If that happens, Almeida said, people like Hobin could be ticketed by 
public health authorities.

It appears the government pushed through the regulation without 
extensive consultation with public health officials.

"It was kind of announced last minute," he said. "We weren't 
previously given any heads up or asked to comment on it."

He said the government's decisions were also driven by a Supreme 
Court ruling easing restrictions on medical marijuana.

"They thought that they were proceeding in the right direction based 
on what the Supreme Court said, but the public backlash that happened 
just before Christmas gave them pause to think about how to proceed," he added.

The government is backtracking after getting themselves caught in a 
cloud of smoke, said Prince Edward-Hastings MPP Todd Smith.

"They're backpedalling to make up for a mistake during the passage of 
this bill before Christmas," he said. "It's created some confusion on 
the ground.

"It created a ridiculous situation aboard a transit bus in 
Belleville," he said.

He said outcry prompted the government to give the new rules "a sober 
second thought, now what we've heard is that they're going to release 
some details that, in fact, you won't be able to smoke or vape 
medical marijuana in all of these places they had originally said it 
was OK to do."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom