If anyone believes there isn’t a healthy dose of unseemly cash-grab in the provincial government’s new cannabis legislation, then they haven’t read the proposed law.

More specifically, they haven’t read sections 72 and 69 (7) of An Act Respecting the Control and Sale of Cannabis.

That’s the section that deals with the online sale of cannabis.

In it, the province attempts to legislate the NLC (“the corporation” in the legislation) a global internet monopoly on cannabis sales.

Here are those sections.

“72. (1) A person other than the corporation shall not sell or otherwise supply cannabis online or through a website.

On Monday (May 28), the Senate’s social affairs committee passed 40 amendments to the proposed federal cannabis legalization laws, including one which would solidify provincial powers to ban at-home cultivation.

In an eight-hour clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act, more than three dozen technical clarifications, definitions, and translation errors were addressed to correct flaws in the drafting. Twenty-nine of those amendments were proposed by Sen. Tory Dean (independent), the bill’s sponsor, implying the majority of changes come with the backing of the government.

Conservative efforts shut down

Several regular MLAs have expressed disappointment that the territorial government appears unwilling to entertain the idea of the private sale of cannabis once it becomes legal across Canada this summer.

It will be sold in government controlled liquor stores in the six communities that have liquor stores and otherwise through mail order.

Hay River MLA R.J. Simpson says the government is going against the wishes of the majority of NWT residents who have made their opinions known.

MLAs visited 16 communities and six schools across the territory earlier this year to get public input of Bill 6 – the government’s cannabis regulation bill.

There has been a great deal of discussion about the British Columbia Cannabis Act, but there has not been a solid breakdown of all of the offences under the Act. In an effort to provide a helpful guide, this post summarizes all the offences laid out in the Cannabis Act.

What is particularly interesting about the penalties in the Cannabis Act, is that many of the offences for possession, production, and distribution mimic those in the proposed federal regulations. This would mean that police have the opportunity to charge individuals under the provincial law or the federal law.

The MP for the Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo riding is not overly optimistic heading into Wednesday’s vote on her private member’s bill concerning landlords and medicinal marijuana home grows, but she hopes it’s the start of a conversation.

“I’m not anticipating support in terms of the vote from the Liberals,” Cathy McLeod told KTW. “But if they’re not willing to support this, then I think they need to be held accountable.”

McLeod’s bill would give rights to landlords who currently have little to no say on whether Health Canada-approved medicinal marijuana users grow pot plants in their homes.

Entrepreneurs who want to sell supplies to help consumers grow cannabis at home are waiting anxiously for June 7, when Canadian senators are expected to vote on, and potentially amend, the Cannabis Act.

One amendment that may pass is a ban on Canadians’ ability to grow cannabis for recreational purposes at their homes.

The likelihood of that amendment passing in a vote of the entire Senate dimmed a bit May 28, when a Senate committee voted by a 6-5 margin against the proposal. That committee vote result, however, is not binding, and does not limit the full Senate from accepting an amendment in the Cannabis Act to have a nationwide ban on grow-your-own cannabis in a June 7 vote.

Two East Kootenay chambers of commerce are teaming up to find a way to protect and boost the lot of small business owners as Canada heads toward cannabis legalization this July.

The Kimberley & District and the Columbia Valley Chambers of Commerce report they are working to protect small business owners by submitting a policy resolution to over 200 delegates at the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce Annual General Meeting in Kamloops on Friday, May 25.

The resolution, entitled, Distribution Fairness for Craft Producers and Retailers (DFCPR) in the emerging cannabis market was adopted by the delegation making it an official policy of the BC Chamber of Commerce.

Pot stores can't set up within a block of daycares, schools, places where minors congregate.

Regina's city council has decided that the city's future pot shops cannot within one block of daycares, schools or other places youths are known to frequent — unless it's downtown.

The one block buffer zone will not apply in downtown Regina. Instead each shop's approval in the area will be at the discretion of city council.

Likewise, if a pot shop is set up first, a daycare, school or any other place with children cannot set up within one block. The final bylaw will be put to a vote on at next month's city council meeting.

The Canadian Senate has proposed several amendments to the government’s plan to legalise recreational cannabis use this year.

An amendment to entirely ban the possibility of growing marijuana at home was proposed was put forward. The Senate social affairs committee rejected that, but did vote in favour of another amendment which leaves the door open for provinces and territories to propose their own ban on the growing of “pot” at home.

Currently the proposed federal law C-45 would allow for the growing of up to five plants in a single dwelling.

Both Manitoba and Quebec have announced that they will prohibit any home grown marijuana.

A few days away from the adoption of the Canadian Cannabis Act, the Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) considers that the Canadian Senate is the last hope for delaying its implementation. "Despite the Trudeau government's multiple commitments to First Nations, Métis and Inuit, it is clearly indifferent to its obligations, particularly in the area of consultation. With regard to the legalization of cannabis, this offloading leads us to call on the sensitivity of the members of the upper house to delay the implementation of the Act," says Ghislain Picard, Chief of the AFNQL.