Langford Mayor Stew Young wrote a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last week about policies on marijuana dispensaries. This is the text of his letter.
As you are aware, the City of Langford has been one of the fastest-growing communities within the capital region of Victoria over the past number of years. With this rapid growth comes many challenges associated with becoming a regional centre, including the regulation of cannabis dispensaries. Although many municipalities are struggling with this issue, I am one of the few mayors within our region looking for a common-sense and fully compliant approach to the distribution of cannabis.
I am writing to you today to implore your government to take urgent action to regulate the distribution of medical cannabis in our communities by designating Health Canada-licensed producers and pharmacies as the sole distributors for cannabis. In my view, this is the only viable way the police can fulfil their mandate to uphold the law and to protect the public.
I have recently heard that Bill Blair, parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice and attorney general of Canada, has started a cross-country tour to discuss the legalization and regulation of cannabis. We certainly share your government’s goal of legalizing, regulating and restricting access to cannabis to keep it out of the hands of children and the profits out of the hands of criminals. In addition to this, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss the regulation of cannabis with yourself and or Health Minister Jane Philpott.
I have attached a recent letter from a constituent (which I am sending along to you, in confidence, with their permission). The constituent states that within two weeks of your election, they noticed “a sudden, significant increase in teenagers, 15 years and older, admitting on confidential medical history forms to using (‘medical’) marijuana and now frequently, have the smell of it invade my office … sometimes on the parent responsible for driving a post-operative patient home.”
Clearly, we have a problem. While I’d be happy to outline my concerns in detail, with yourself or in person with Bill Blair, I suggest the following:
1. Permit Health Canada licensed producers (LPs) to create storefront dispensaries to distribute medical cannabis to the patient directly;
2. Permit all LPs to distribute their medically certified cannabis to legitimate pharmacies; and,
3. Direct Health Canada to establish a certification program for anyone who dispenses any cannabis product prescribed by a doctor.
Allowing pharmacies to dispense medical cannabis from licensed producers would undercut the growing number of illegal cannabis dispensaries popping up all over Canada. In my view, it is extremely important to have trained, educated professionals safely dispensing drugs across Canada.
It is my firm belief that these changes would go a long way in protecting the public from illegal cannabis increasingly coming from unknown sources — and very likely from criminal elements.
The longer this issue is left in legal limbo, the more difficulties it is creating in our society. As an example, it has been reported that we now have duffel bags full of cash moving between Vancouver and Victoria because dispensaries in both Vancouver and Victoria can’t use the banking system.
I urge your government to move quickly with legislation and/or regulation that will bring clarity to this issue and thereby allow legitimate businesses such as banks direction on how to deal with these ventures. It will also allow insurance companies to insure legal businesses in the cannabis sector.
Additionally, I strongly believe that once legislation is enacted, all three levels of government should have access to the tax revenue that flows from legalized cannabis enterprises. This is clearly the best way to get organized crime out of the picture and bring billions of dollars in underground economic activity back into the mainstream economy.
It is municipal governments that are on the front lines dealing with this issue. The City of Langford has already had a dispensary illegally set up shop twice, both times raided and closed by our local RCMP detachment.
Bringing legal clarity quickly to this issue is paramount for our communities. The longer your government takes to provide clear direction to Canadians, the greater the opportunity for contradictory direction. For example, we now have a Supreme Court of Canada decision allowing marijuana patients to eat products containing THC, we have dispensaries selling edible products to the public, but we have provincial health officers who will not grant a licence to any commercial kitchen using THC or cannabis as an ingredient.
I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to talk to you and your minister of health about this urgent matter, and I would welcome the opportunity to meet with Mr. Blair when he makes his way to our area.
Mayor Stew Young
Langford
