The B.C. government is making time to listen as it plans new marijuana regulations, even though the listening will leave only a few months to finish crafting the rules for the coming new era of legal pot.
Mike Farnworth, minister of public safety and solicitor general, said this week that the public consultation will be finished by Nov. 1. The government will have to finish writing rules and regulations by next summer.
The federal government introduced legislation in April that would legalize recreational marijuana by July 1, 2018, but is leaving it up to each province to determine its own distribution system and usage regulations.
Those who were hoping that this week’s announcement would spell out the province’s position in detail didn’t get all their wishes. Some things will be determined after the consultations conclude.
One of the big questions is how much responsibility and how many problems will land in the laps of local governments.
Cities such as Victoria have already watched the problems sprout along with the proliferation of pot shops. Meanwhile, in Langford, the city has diligently squashed any attempts to open retail operations before they become legal. All are counting the days until this bizarre state of waiting is finally over.
Municipalities, and their residents, want to know what the rules will be. Although the government argues that the turmoil of the recent provincial election has delayed everything, holding off the new regime until the middle of next year is cutting it too close for comfort.
Businesses and local governments won’t be able to throw the switch overnight. They have been trying to anticipate what’s coming from senior governments, but many unanswered questions hamper their preparations.
One thing everyone needs is consistency. The same rules have to apply across the province, to avoid a nightmare for residents, governments and law enforcement.
Farnworth did promise that some things would be consistent, including age restrictions, enforcement and possession limits. The most sensible answer to the first question is to set the legal age at 19, so it’s the same as the age for liquor; having two different ages would be too confusing for everyone.
Despite Farnworth’s assurances of consistency, the important regulations on where people can buy their pot are still up in the air. The province seems to have rejected the recently announced Ontario model, which would sell marijuana through provincial liquor stores.
Instead, Farnworth said he doesn’t want to force municipalities to follow one retail model.
“I think it’s important that local government is not only heard and at the table, but there’s an understanding that one size does not fit all,” Farnworth said.
“One size does not fit all” sounds as if it could be a hodgepodge of different rules, something that is likely to create more headaches than it solves.
Those headaches, as usual, would belong to the governments with the least resources: municipalities, which are already concerned about the cost of this new regulatory age.
Farnworth promised: “We are not looking at this as a downloading exercise — we want to make sure we have in place the resources to deal with those upfront costs that are required.” Mayors and councillors should take that with a grain of salt, as downloading has been a senior-government fallback strategy for decades.
Everyone involved might be tempted to toke up to deal with the stress of waiting, but that would just blunt the sense of urgency that is required in this case. Consult by all means, but get the new rules written in time for governments and businesses to adapt.
