Toronto MP and former police chief Bill Blair says new legislation around marijuana in Canada will stop youth purchasing marijuana from those involved in organized crime.
The federal government has announced plans to introduce new legislation by April 20 – better known as the national holiday for marijuana users, 4/20.
The law itself isn’t expected to be in place until Canada Day in 2018.
During the election, the Liberals vowed to legalize marijuana but have stayed relatively mum on when exactly it would happen. They campaigned on a promise to legalize recreational weed this spring but pushed it back another year.
Former justice minister Anne McLellan released a detailed report back in December, in conjunction with a task force, which outlined a framework for the government to ease the country into legalization.
The report charted 80 recommendations including barring anyone under the age of 18 from purchasing marijuana and limiting sales to storefronts and mail.
The 106-page report gave suggestions on advertising and branding, personal growing limits versus personal possession limits, and penalties for illicit production and trafficking.
Currently, medical marijuana is only sold to those with prescriptions via mail.
Blair praised the report following its release, calling it “comprehensive.”
For three decades Blair served on the Toronto Police Service. He was appointed chief back in 2005 and held that position until 2015.
Back in January 2016, Blair was tasked with handling the Liberal government’s promise to legalize weed.
Speaking to CTV News Toronto on Monday, he reiterated his approval of the report. He said the recommendations made in the report will ultimately relieve Canadians of unregulated, illegal pot sales and police forces of copious amounts of time spent on these cases.
“One of the challenges law enforcement was facing was that there was no talk of dealing with cannabis in a more comprehensive way. The amount of effort and the amount of resources that were being expended by police in cannabis charges is really extensive and compared to the outcome, it was really disproportional,” he said. “A simple case would take 25 hours of work and the outcome of that was next to nothing. What we found overwhelmingly was that it wasn’t in any way achieving anything of value because the rates of cannabis use in this country are higher than anywhere else in the world.”
Blair said the government has taken a “public health approach” to marijuana legalization rather than an approach burdened by criminal sanctions or commercialization.
He has, however, remained firm on restricting marijuana access to children when legalization becomes the law of the land.
“With the highest rates of cannabis use among young people, more than any country in the world, and we know that there are real risk to our kids as a result of that,” he said.
Acknowledging the risks marijuana use has on the developing brain, Blair said the system, once in place, will have ironed out ways to reduce health and social risks at all steps -- production, distribution and consumption.
“It’s why we want to put strict rules on production, so we know its potency, so we know where it came from and so we can say with absolute certainty what Canadians are consuming,” he said.
Blair said these strict rules will work to prevent children from obtaining marijuana.
“Right now, it’s an awful lot easier for a 13-year-old kid to acquire marijuana than it is to acquire alcohol, because we have a strict regulation in place for alcohol,” he said. “It’s very, very dangerous for the developing adolescent brain – which is why we want to keep it away from kids.”
“I’m not suggesting that this is an absolute guarantee that young people won’t have access to it, but it will be a lot tougher because the marijuana that is being sold in a regulated distribution centre -- there will be a responsible adult who will be accountable for the decision not to sell to that kid.”
As well, Blair said he recognizes that better education about health and marijuana use is just as important.
“I believe that we will have strong legislation that will recognize the risk of selling to children. That will remain a very serious offence with a very serious penalty.”
Blair went on to emphasize that selling to anyone younger than 18 years old will not only remain a crime, but anyone who disobeys that law will be slapped with more serious penalties.
So too will those who continue to produce outside of the system.
Blair said the plethora of pot dispensaries that have popped up across Toronto and the country in the wake of the Liberals’ campaign promise to legalize weed will remain illegal come 2018.
Many of the shops have operated under the justification that the law about marijuana is muddled because of the Liberals’ promise to introduce new ones.
“When people say the law is unclear, that is absolute nonsense. The law is crystal clear. What those dispensaries are doing is breaking the law,” Blair said.
“The system that we’re bringing forward is not legalizing the illegal distribution of cannabis. We’re creating a proper regulated system of production and distribution that will be subject to rules, regulations, oversight, testing, recall and accountability. That’s how we’re going to make it safer for all the citizens and particularly safer for our kids.”
When asked what the marijuana sales system will look like for Ontario specifically, Blair said, “That’s up to Ontario,” noting that each provincial government should look toward taking the profits away from organized crime.
“I would not presume to tell Ontario how to do that, but I will share with Ontario is what we’re all trying to achieve – we need to keep this out of the hands of kids, we need to be able to compete effectively with organized crime and take this business away from organized crime,” Blair said.
“Organized crime does nothing good with the profits.”
‘Princess of pot’ Jodie Emery reacts to upcoming legislation
Blair’s appointment on the marijuana legalization file came with much scrutiny, particularly at the hands of pot activists, including the so-called prince and princess of pot, Marc and Jodie Emery.
The couple told The Canadian Press in January 2016 that police have long been adversaries to the marijuana movement, so giving the job to the former chief of Toronto police does not make sense.
Most recently, Toronto police conducted several raids at a chain of dispensaries owned by the Emerys, known as Cannabis Culture. The shops were subjected to raids at their locations in Toronto, Hamilton and Vancouver while the Emerys were in police custody.
The pair were charged with a list of drug-related offences and stringent bail conditions.
At the time, the Emerys’ lawyer called the raids an “incredible waste of taxpayer dollars and police resources” and scolded the Toronto Police Service for the sweeping raids as the federal government prepares to introduce legislation to legalize pot.
After these events, Toronto police reiterated that they will continue to raid dispensaries and charge owners and employees so long as the laws about marijuana are “clear.”
Jodie Emery told CP24 over the phone on Monday that the legalization of marijuana slated for 2018 would not have happened without years of fighting by marijuana activists.
“Marijuana activist have been fighting for decades to be taken seriously. We’ve been arrested, demonized, called ‘druggies’, we’ve had our homes, children and jobs taken away,” she said. “Marijuana activist have been fighting a long time using political campaigns and education and protests to make legalization a reality.”
Despite the persistence from marijuana activists over the years, Jodie Emery says she does not trust the upcoming legislation from the Liberal government nor Blair.
“I don’t trust the Liberal government. I resigned my membership (and) I cancelled my monthly donation,” she said. “Every party eventually gives in to the pressure from police who want to maintain the law enforcement budget that they receive.”
