The provincial government will unveil its retail sales model for legal cannabis today, and B.C.’s new Chief Medical Health Officer knows what she does and doesn’t want to see.
Dr. Bonnie Henry says health experts, including her, have recommended against selling liquor in the same location as legal cannabis.
As for what she does want in the retail marijuana sales model.
“We would like to see a model that protects it from young people in particular. I think that is what our focus is on.”
Henry says we also need to decriminalize drug users.
“So what we would like to see is that the resources are put to administrative fines if people have over a certain amount. Like the Portugal model that you may have heard of, where people who have possession of small amounts of drugs, are put through a process where there is an assessment of their health needs and that we treat addiction as it is as a health issue.”
She says when marijuana becomes legal it will make the sale of cannabis much less dangerous than it currently is.