The closer we get to the legalization of marijuana the more we realize what a can of worms has been opened. Assuming the Bill is passed by the Senate on June 7th, it will take a while before you can actually walk in to a store and buy the stuff. The federal health minister said it has to go on sale in all provinces and territories at the same time so if one is slow getting organized the others just have to wait. The feds started all this by saying cannabis will be legalized and then they sloughed off the prickly details to the lower levels of government. Our provincial government gave Saskatoon 7 business licences to sell pot. Many want the business so there is a lottery. Municipalities also have to contend with law enforcement, as in impaired driving, because as far as I know, no one yet knows how much marijuana one has to consume to be too stoned to drive. Then there’s zoning, and this week I saw again how hard it is for city council to get their collective heads around where retail cannabis stores can be located. Finding 7 locations in a city this size and keeping them a fair distance from schools shouldn’t pose that much of a problem and besides, a person will have to be 19 or older to go in the store. And hey, if the intent is to protect kids from using weed, don’t you think the people who sell it now illegally can keep selling it to those under 19 simply by dropping their price under what it sells for in a legal outlet? As I said, can of worms. Thanks, federal government.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.