B.C. outlines new, amended regulations in lead up to legalization of pot
Posted October 5, 2018 8:07 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – With the legalization of marijuana less than two weeks away, the B.C. government is revealing some new and amended regulations to support the legal cannabis regime.
While we knew the basic details of how the province would roll out the legalization of pot, some of the new regulations provide further clarification.
“The possession limit is more explicit and it’s more explicit exactly where cannabis can be used and where it can’t be used,” Cannabis researcher Rielle Capler says. “There’s more explicit information about how much those tickets are going to be, and some of the distinctions that are being made or not around medical use.”
New rules prohibit the use of pot in indoor public places, like school property, inter-city buses, trains and boats.
They also include restrictions when it comes to advertising.
“One of the things that stood out for me here was just that it prohibits anyone from advertising the place as a location to consume cannabis, but also to go after consuming cannabis,” Capler says. “I find that interesting because, you know, someone saying ‘hey you’re welcome here to come after you’ve smoked cannabis.’ To me, I don’t see why that would be a public health concern.”
The most you’ll be able to keep at home is 1,000 grams, of dried marijuana, or the equivalent.
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If you’re caught breaking the rules, you can face fines ranging from $58 to 230 under the Cannabis Control and Licensing Act. Capler believes there is a fairness, in some respect, by keeping fines consistent with those handed out for liquor or tobacco infractions.
“It would be unfair if they were higher, so that’s something to consider. It seems that if cannabis, if the places where people can use cannabis as opposed to liquor and tobacco are more restricted then that could be problematic.”
The province will also be applying a PST to both non-medical and medical pot sales, which generally aligns with other provinces and their regulations, the B.C. government says.
While the seven per cent tax was not unexpected, Capler says it is disappointing.
“It was an opportunity to remove that tax, and that’s something that patients had been asking for for a long time. Cannabis is prohibitively costly for people who are using it for medical purposes. The costs are actually going to go up, not just because of these taxes, which actually were already there in the medical system, but because there is now an excised tax that;s going to be added to it.”
She adds there will also be elevated prices for anyone looking to purchase pot through new licensed retailers because of the “central distributor and the 15 per cent tax on top of that,” she explains.
Capler is also curious to find out more about medical production limits, which the province has said was going to be limited to be consistent with the recreational limits, she tells NEWS 1130.
Legalization is on Oct. 17.
