Ontario government taking medical marijuana plan back to the drawing board
Ontario’s government taking controversial plan to allow vaping of medical marijuana anywhere back to drawing board after complaints.

thestar.com
Nov. 26, 2015
By Rob Ferguson

Ontario’s plan to allow vaping and smoking of medical marijuana anywhere, anytime is going back to the drawing board after a public backlash suggested it was one toke over the line.

Associate Health Minister Dipika Damerla quickly reversed course Thursday over concerns about exposure to second-hand cannabis smoke in restaurants, theatres, offices and other public spaces where tobacco smoking is banned.

“We will consider this feedback, look at it very carefully and see what we need to do,” she told reporters.

“It’s too early to say whether this was a failure or not,” Damerla added. “It’s important that governments be responsive.”

About 23,000 Canadians use medical marijuana under doctors’ prescriptions.

The controversial policy would have exempted medical marijuana from new e-cigarette restrictions taking effect Jan. 1, which ban their use in non-smoking areas.

While proprietors and employers would have been given the legal power to tell people not to smoke or vape medical marijuana on the premises, there were fears about the potential for conflicts and misunderstanding along with air quality.

“You’re trying to kill me if I go into a restaurant or movie theatre,” said Toronto retiree Elinor Smyth, a former smoker with lung and heart disease, who often uses an oxygen tank to help her breathe.

She blamed the government for not thinking ahead.

Restaurants Canada, which was not consulted about the policy, said it will be difficult to balance the competing needs of medical marijuana users and diners.

“We’re looking at this as an opportunity to do what should have been done in the first place and see what the best way is to do this,” said spokesman James Rilett.

The re-examination of the issue will test the limits of the legal and human rights concept that the needs of people with disabilities must be accommodated given that the issue is sharing the air.

Damerla said there is “no scientific evidence” second-hand marijuana vapour from e-cigarettes has any health effects on bystanders.

Medical marijuana users, which include cancer patients in pain and people with severe epilepsy who need it to control seizures, maintain they need the right to take their medication when and where they see fit.

“There’s still time to work things out,” said Jonathan Zaid, executive director of Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana, who noted he usually goes “outside the building” to vape his cannabis that he uses for chronic headaches.

“I’m discreet about it,” he told the Star, adding that smoking or vaping medical pot in restaurants and playgrounds is “just not what people do.”

Opposition parties charged the government should have consulted more broadly over the regulation before making it public. “It sounds like they need to do a little bit more homework,” said Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown.

“We do want to accommodate medical needs that exist in Ontario and I’m going to be hopeful the government will get this right.”

Lack of consultation is a problem the Liberals have imposed on the sale of Hydro One, which polls suggest is opposed by about 80 per cent of the public, said Deputy NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

“This should not come as a surprise,” he said, calling the competing interests of medical marijuana users and the broader public “tricky.”