At the last Barrhead and District Chamber of Commerce meeting reeve Doug Drozd announced that Royal Canadian Cannabis, a medical marijuana producer will be the first tenant at the county’s Kiel Industrial Park.
If this does come to fruition, this will make it the third producer company of this type within 100 kilometres, the others being Quadel Growers Incorporated, whose facility will be located near Fort Assiniboine and Atlas Growers proposed facility in Lac Ste Anne County, near Rich Valley.
And we for one couldn’t be more pleased for the very reason we believe Health Canada and other medical experts who say that cannabis is beneficial when used the right way, under controlled circumstances and under the supervision of a medical professional in the treatment of ailments such as the treatment of epilepsy and multiple sclerosis.
We also look forward to the economic benefits the jobs will have on the area.
In recent weeks, we have published stories on how the Chamber of Commerce, along with the two Barrhead municipalities and Pembina Hills Public Schools (PHPS) are trying to entice people who work at our local schools to make the communities they serve their primary residence.
They are doing this for two reasons. The first is that PHPS believes having employees that live and work in the communities improves their students’ education. The other being to help bolster school enrolment numbers.
That being said, don’t confuse our support of medical marijuana with us supporting the legalization of marijuana for personal use. Let us be clear, we do not support the Federal government’s plan to legalize cannabis for personal use. Nor would we be in favour of any of the medical marijuana companies expanding their operations to include the “adult cannabis” market.
In our minds, these are two separate issues.
Although there is considerable debate about how harmful marijuana is — we agree with Barrhead’s top cop Sgt. Bob Dodds who says pot is dangerous for the mere fact that it is a gateway drug leading people to do more harmful substances.
And even if we agreed with the government’s plan, we believe the timetable is far from realistic. Yes, the provincial and municipal governments in all likelihood will be able to hammer out legislation on how people can purchase and where they can use the product by the Oct. 17 legalization deadline, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done on the enforcement end, specifically that of impaired driving. From our understanding talking to local law enforcement officials, it could be years until police forces receive the appropriate training and equipment to properly detect and arrest drivers who are impaired by marijuana.
Until these items are in place we believe it is premature to legalize cannabis for personal use.
