{"id":104698,"date":"2017-09-01T09:20:34","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T13:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/?p=104698\/"},"modified":"2017-09-01T09:26:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T13:26:00","slug":"cannabis-quebec-minister-openly-admits-to-be-clueless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/cannabis-quebec-minister-openly-admits-to-be-clueless\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannabis: Quebec Minister Openly Admits To Be Clueless"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>&#8220;This is a very good question to which I have no answer. I will not lie to you, when I have no answer, I say it candidly,&#8221; replied the Minister.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>We seldom hear such a candid admission from a Minister in office, and that&#8217;s what makes this issue so interesting.<\/p>\n<p>While the upcoming legalization of cannabis is scheduled for July 1, 2018, a date carved in stone, provincial governments are rushed to figure out quickly how to regulate its production, distribution and sale in their province. Thus, the festival of hearings and public consultations that we see right now and which will culminate this month.<\/p>\n<p>The Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) already held an <a href=\"https:\/\/encadrementcannabis.gouv.qc.ca\/forum\/\">Expert Forum<\/a> last June and is currently holding public consultations where organizations and businesses are invited.<\/p>\n<p>Already four public consultations were held in August in Quebec City, Saguenay, Rimouski and Trois-Rivi\u00e8res.<\/p>\n<p>In September, three more are scheduled in Montreal, Gatineau and Granby (see schedule <a href=\"https:\/\/encadrementcannabis.gouv.qc.ca\/consultation\/s-inscrire-a-une-seance-de-consultation-regionale\/#representants\">here<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>In addition to this great collective brainstorming session, Quebec Federal MPs will also hold their own public consultation sessions.<\/p>\n<p>For example, Liberal MPs Linda Lapointe of Rivi\u00e8re-des-Milles-\u00celes and Ramez Ayoub of Th\u00e9r\u00e8se-de-Blainville will organize a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nordinfo.com\/actualites\/consultation-publique-legalisation-cannabis\/\">joint consultation session<\/a> on September 13 in Blainville.<\/p>\n<p>As for the provincial consultation, each meeting is an opportunity to address three themes: prevention, distribution (places and conditions of sale, minimum age, taxes, etc.) and public safety.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of distribution, all the scenarios are debated, although it is already known that the government&#8217;s mind is already made and that it excludes from the outset the sale of pot in depanneurs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fear, preoccupations and concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many participants at these consultations stress that this dangerous product should be handled by some reassuring Crown corporation, as if the taxes were not high enough in Quebec and the proof of their general incompetence, whether for the maintenance of roads, schools and hospital emergencies, was not yet sufficiently established.<\/p>\n<p>However, once the primal pulsions of control evacuated, the reality quickly sets in:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>if taxes are too high, organized crime will continue to control the market;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>if the legal age is set at 21, this will not prevent young people aged 15-16 from buying pot in school yards;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>if the sale is restricted to specialized stores, the product will remain mostly unavailable and consumers will continue to buy from criminals;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>if the sale is allowed exclusively in a state-controlled retail channel, what about online sales?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>also, a crucial question: should brands be allowed on cannabis packages while the government considers removing them from cigarette packs?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What is clear is that most health, education and public safety stakeholders are worried and frustrated by the speed with which the legalization process is happening.<\/p>\n<p>The Minister of Public Health, Mrs. Lucie Charlebois, candidly admits that she is quite clueless about what to do next.<\/p>\n<p>For example, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lapresse.ca\/actualites\/politique\/politique-quebecoise\/201708\/25\/01-5127470-marijuana-la-vente-en-ligne-un-casse-tete-pour-quebec.php\">La Presse<\/a>, on the question of where marijuana could be sold in Quebec, she said that her choice has not yet been made between entrusting the mandate to private companies &#8211; an idea denounced by several public health experts &#8211; or a crown corporation (but we know as a fact that the government has no intention of allowing sales through depanneurs). She admits that the digital economy is blurring the cards. What could Quebec do if other provinces were to regulate distribution differently and allow online sales?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;This is a very good question to which I have no answer. I will not lie to you, when I have no answer, I say it candidly, &#8221; replied the Minister.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Clueless indeed!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;This is a very good question to which I have no answer. I will not lie to you, when I<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":104697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1742,223],"tags":[996,997,998,1000,840,1001,999,310],"class_list":["post-104698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marijuana-eng","category-newsdep","tag-age-legal-en","tag-cannabis-en","tag-legalisation-en","tag-legalization","tag-public-health","tag-public-safety","tag-sante-publique-en","tag-tobacco"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/consultation-Pot.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depquebec.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}