Pubdate: Fri, 03 Jun 2016
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Page: A1
Copyright: 2016 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Authors: Daniel Leblanc and Mike Hager

HIRE SIGNALS OTTAWA'S STRICT LINE ON RECREATIONAL MARIJUANA

The Liberal government is sending further signals it plans a strict
regime for recreational marijuana by hiring former public safety
minister Anne McLellan to develop plans to legalize the drug.

Sources confirmed that Ms. McLellan will head a federal-provincial
task force that will report to Bill Blair, the Liberal MP and
parliamentary secretary for justice who is in charge of the file. Mr.
Blair, a former Toronto police chief, has denounced the growing number
of unregulated pot dispensaries across the country.

The task force, which has yet to be announced formally, will be asked
to report later this year, with legislation to legalize marijuana to
be tabled in the House in the spring of 2017.

Ms. McLellan has a lot of experience dealing with marijuana issues in
Ottawa. Having been minister of public safety, health and justice in
the Liberal governments of Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, she was
involved in both the fight against trafficking by organized crime, and
in responding to court rulings that ordered the government to provide
access to marijuana for medical use.

In those days, Ms. McLellan was widely seen as being right of centre
in the Liberal Party.

The current minister of Public Safety, Ralph Goodale, said the goal is
to develop a regime for selling recreational pot that does a better
job than the current situation at keeping the drug away from young
people. "We want a system of strict regulation and restrictions and
taxation that will keep marijuana more effectively out of the hands of
our kids and stop that flow of illegal cash into the hands of
organized crime," Mr. Goodale said after appearing at the public
safety committee of the House on Thursday.

"The present arrangement, for all of the strong language about the war
on drugs, has obviously failed," he added.

Ms. McLellan said in 2002, as the minister of health, that she felt "a
certain degree of discomfort" around the issue of medical marijuana.

She said "the courts took us down a certain path," arguing it was not
her government's choice to allow the use of cannabis for medical purposes.

Brent Zettl, whose Prairie Plant Systems Inc. was the first company
licensed by Ottawa to grow medical marijuana after those court
decisions, said that Ms. McLellan was always most concerned with the
safety and security of the system.

"She is very, very rules-oriented and very cognizant of the law and
very cognizant of safety," said Mr. Zettl, who has grown marijuana
under one federal system or another for the past 15 years.

Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith called Ms. McLellan a "very reasonable
person" whose views on cannabis have likely evolved over the past
decade or so, like those of most Canadians.

"Canada's come a long way ... on the topic from the medical cannabis
side, but obviously Canadians across the country want to move away
from prohibition towards a regulatory environment," said Mr.
Erskine-Smith, whose Toronto constituency office neighbours an illegal
dispensary that was among 45 raided by police last month. "Both for
public safety reasons and health reasons and also to treat Canadians
like the responsible adults we are."

Ms. McLellan refused an interview request on Thursday to give her
current views on marijuana, but she is expected to speak publicly once
the government confirms her appointment. She is a lawyer in Edmonton
and the chancellor of Dalhousie University.

Provincial politicians want pot to be sold through liquor stores or
pharmacies - not dispensaries - once recreational use is written into
law next spring. Regardless of where it is eventually distributed, the
City of Vancouver and several other West Coast communities have
crafted bylaws they say can guide face-to-face sales. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D