If the federal Liberals keep their campaign promise, legal pot is around the corner. The Village of Queen Charlotte is rightly preparing now for how to regulate marijuana retailers once it's legalized.Legal or not, marijuana is a drug that affects the brain. We have a responsibility as a community to regulate access to this drug and to minimize harms from its use and distribution. According to the Canadian Paediatric Society, cannabis harms brain development during adolescence, making access for youth a matter of health. The society writes that "cannabis use during adolescence can cause functional and structural changes to the developing brain, leading to damage." Doctors also raise concerns about marijuana dependence and associations between pot use and depression, anxiety,and psychosis.

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