West Shore RCMP were justified in closing a newly opened marijuana dispensary in Langford. While the federal government is in the process of bringing in new legislation on marijuana, no one has the right to break federal or municipal laws, and that’s what the pot shop was doing.
The Green Tree marijuana dispensary opened on Monday, despite warnings from city officials that it would be shut down, as it did not have a business licence, and Langford has no bylaws allowing the sale of marijuana.
RCMP said it’s illegal for medicinal marijuana dispensaries or compassion clubs to sell marijuana to the public, regardless of whether customers have medical licences to possess marijuana or the vendor has a licence to produce.
“Businesses and/or individuals operating in contravention of the [Controlled Drugs and Substances Act] and Health Canada regulations may be subject to investigation and criminal charges in accordance with Canadian laws,” said West Shore RCMP spokesman Const. Alex Bérubé.
There’s no question Canada’s marijuana laws need to be changed. For too long, people have been unfairly criminalized for using a substance that many say is less harmful than alcohol, which is legal.
The case for decriminalization is strong. And there’s ample evidence that marijuana derivatives can be helpful for some health conditions. One plank in the federal Liberals’ platform in the 2015 election was a promise to “legalize, regulate and restrict access to marijuana.”
The legislation hasn’t been hammered out yet, but that hasn’t stopped pot shops from popping up all over, creating a headache for municipalities. How do you regulate something that is still illegal under federal law?
In setting up shop, marijuana shops took advantage of a bizarre situation in Canada where laws against possession of marijuana are not being enforced — at least in some places.
The courts have said that the medical-marijuana laws didn’t give enough access to patients, so the dispensaries started opening up in the grey area.
However, every business requires a licence from the municipality where it operates. Shops that sell marijuana must be subject to the same rules.
After the number of marijuana-related businesses in Victoria grew to 35 from four in less than two years, the city brought in regulations specifying distances between shops, hours of opening, licence fees, odour control, security measures and a host of other factors.
That still puts Victoria at odds with federal law, but at least it brings a semblance of order to a bizarre situation.
While we wait for the new laws, we can’t throw the door wide open to marijuana sales. Health Canada allows the production and sale of medical marijuana, under stringent conditions.
So-called dispensaries aren’t operating in accordance with those regulations. Customers have no idea about the quality or potency of the marijuana they buy. Unlike pharmacists, operators of pot shops have not been trained in the preparation and dispensing of medications.
We hope that Ottawa will heed the advice of a group of doctors, patients, health charities and scientists who have urged the government to study the health effects and potential therapeutic benefits of medical marijuana.
The Medical Cannabis Research Roundtable issued a report in 2016 that calls on the government to invest $25 million over the next five years for research. That amount is probably too modest.
There’s hope the federal government will soon straighten out this mess. A federal task force on marijuana legalization released a report in December that recommends allowing storefront and mail-order sales to people 18 and older, with personal growing limits of four plants per person and a 30-gram limit on personal possession.
Meanwhile, municipalities have the right — and the obligation — to enforce their own bylaws.
