Ian Bailey
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau isn’t
committing to the sale of marijuana in liquor outlets, as Ontario
Premier Kathleen Wynne and others have suggested, but he isn’t ruling it
out.
During a visit to Vancouver City
Hall on Thursday – the first by a sitting prime minister since Mr.
Trudeau’s father, Pierre, visited in 1973 – Mr. Trudeau said he is open
to all “best practices” on the issue as he forges ahead with his
commitment to legalize and regulate marijuana.
Federal Justice Minister Jody
Wilson-Raybould, a Vancouver MP who accompanied Mr. Trudeau on the
visit, said there is no specific deadline for completing the
legalization process.
“I am not going
to commit to a timeline because we want to ensure that we approach it in
a comprehensive way, ensuring we speak broadly with other levels of
government,” she told reporters.
Asked
about selling pot through liquor stores, Ms. Wilson-Raybould said she
appreciated that Ontario’s Premier and others are expressing their
ideas, and she looks forward to working with all provinces and
stakeholders.
As for whether criminal charges would be laid ahead of legalization, she said marijuana remains illegal at this time.
Mr.
Trudeau received an effusive welcome at City Hall, with dozens of
municipal staff, elected officials, senior police and fire officials,
and members of the public lining up outside to await him and filling the
cramped main hall.
The Prime Minister
met with Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, whose government struggled
this year to manage a boom in medical marijuana dispensaries – an effort
that was sharply criticized by the former Conservative federal
government.
“When it comes to
distribution, when it comes to selling, obviously the provinces and,
indeed, the municipalities will have to be an integral part of that
discussion and we’re expecting there to be different perspectives and
different solutions put forward,” Mr. Trudeau said.
“The
challenge of getting this important initiative right is one of ensuring
we are broadly listening to partners, to folks in the medical marijuana
industry, to municipal partners, to provinces and drawing from best
practices from around the world,” he said. “We’re going to get this
right in a way that suits Canadians broadly.”
In
a subtle jab at the former Conservative government, Mr. Robertson said
the city had no choice but to step in to regulate dispensaries because
“there was no thoughtful controls coming from Ottawa.”
But
he said it was too soon to be specific about how to regulate marijuana,
beyond saying Vancouver would take and apply lessons from managing
dispensaries to the new regime that would be created by Ottawa.
“It
remains to be seen,” he told reporters after Mr. Trudeau had departed.
“We need to understand what the options are. We see different approaches
in different states south of the border. We want to make sure we have
all the facts in front of us before we make any decisions around
distribution.”
Earlier this year,
Vancouver introduced a business licensing system to regulate medical
marijuana dispensaries, which have proliferated in the city despite
remaining illegal under federal law.
This
week, Ontario’s Ms. Wynne called for marijuana to be sold through
government-owned liquor stores in her province, suggesting the
liquor-distribution mechanism could responsibly sell the drug. Her
comments followed those of the union representing workers in
government-owned stores in B.C. in a partnership with the B.C. Private
Liquor Store Association, who support a similar approach.
Independent
Senator Larry Campbell, who, along with all Liberal senators, was
expelled from the caucus two years ago, said legalization is well below
other priorities of a government that is “just trying to get their feet
on the ground and get their staff together.”
“I
don’t think it’s really on their radar yet,” he said from his home on
Galiano Island on Wednesday. “We’re looking at two years down the road
before we get to some form of legalization.”
Mr.
Campbell, who pushed for harm reduction on the Downtown Eastside when
he was Vancouver’s mayor, said the government should first fix the
failing medical marijuana system, where fewer than two dozen licensed
producers are restricted to mailing their product to a patient base of
roughly 18,000 people.
“You could
actually set up a bank in this country with less regulations from the
point of view of security and all the rest of it,” said Mr. Campbell,
who is an adviser to aspiring pot grower Vodis Innovative
Pharmaceuticals Inc.
“From the start, I
don’t think the [former Conservative] government was supportive of [the
federal medical marijuana system] and the bureaucracy was caught in the
middle, quite frankly.”
He said the federal government should create retail avenues for medical marijuana producers to sell their product to customers.
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