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Ottawa’s public well being authority is about to concern dozens of suggestions to the federal authorities on the Hashish Act, from particularly prohibiting pot merchandise from coming in sure shapes and hues to issuing tips round what number of shops ought to go in a single space.
The suggestions from Ottawa Public Well being (OPH) function their contribution to a recently-launched federal review of Canada’s pot legislation, one designed to have a look at whether or not the foundations round authorized hashish had been assembly Canadians’ hopes and desires.
Beneath the act, the evaluation — which started in September, a 12 months not on time — should look at the legislation’s affect on Indigenous folks, the cultivation of hashish in housing complexes, and the well being and consumption patterns of younger folks.
Its mandate has, nonetheless, expanded to contemplate social and environmental results of authorized pot, the affect of medicinal hashish, and how the foundations have affected girls and racialized communities.
In a report developing subsequent week on the metropolis’s board of well being, OPH says whereas they stay “supportive of a public well being strategy” to regulating pot, they nonetheless have a number of considerations.
These embrace merchandise and packaging that would enchantment to kids, an increase in unintentional poisonings after legalization, and lack of “co-ordinated entry” to substance use and remedy companies, the report notes.
Ban on flavouring, sprinkles
OPH’s suggestions embrace sustaining the present limits on tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive property of hashish.
They name for a ban on any flavouring brokers in hashish extracts, in addition to using “shapes, sprinkles or colors which will enchantment to kids.”
All edible merchandise must also be stamped or marked with the THC image when potential, OPH argues, whereas any use of the phrases “sweet” or “candies” needs to be prohibited.
Different suggestions embrace:
- Maintaining the present four-plant restrict for house growers.
- Investing in schooling efforts round hashish use and sure populations, like youth and pregnant folks.
- Offering “most density” tips in terms of brick-and-mortar pot shops.
- Systemically gather race-based information to higher perceive racial disparities in cannabis-related costs.
- Permitting pharmacists to dispense medical cannabis.
Might push customers to black market
A number of of OPH’s suggestions to make pot merchandise much less interesting to kids are already captured by Health Canada guidelines and could be close to not possible to codify within the act itself, mentioned Trina Fraser, a associate at Ottawa agency Brazeau Vendor Regulation who makes a speciality of hashish legislation.
“We’re not going to prescribe particularly what meaning as a result of we will not foresee each single factor that is perhaps interesting to kids,” Fraser mentioned.
“It is one thing that must be decided on a case-by-case foundation.”
There’s additionally the fear that including extra restrictions round issues like flavouring or the variety of shops in a given space — and even sustaining current limits on THC content material — will simply drive folks to the still-flourishing underground market, Fraser mentioned.
“Within the unregulated market, we’re shopping for untested merchandise with no restrictions in any respect, in packages that most likely aren’t child-resistant [or are] designed to imitate or appear to be precise sweet,” she mentioned.
“We appear to maintain butting up towards that brick wall the place we are saying we would like Canadians to be wholesome and protected — and but we’re making an attempt to limit their decisions in a approach that we all know is simply going to cause them to making a call to buy merchandise which might not be protected.”
OPH’s suggestions go to the well being board for approval on Nov. 7.
OPH’s suggestions on the Hashish Act
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