By Susan Chapelle
Published: May 29, 2019
I don’t actually remember the first time I used cannabis; I was very young. Due to chronic illness and repeated hospital stays for the majority of my younger years, combined with a diagnoses of a shortened life expectancy I lacked the same concern or biases that others held regarding cannabis.
Kept alive by high doses of pharmaceuticals including prednisone, various inhaled steroids, as well as cell growth inhibitors, I had a great respect for the science that has kept me on this planet, while finding that cannabis made it easier to sleep, breathe and deal with my chronic health issues.
As a researcher, I was intrigued with the cellular mechanism of cannabis use. As an elected official I pondered municipal zoning and Agricultural Land Reserve policies that restricted the growth of this particular agricultural product. It has consumed my thoughts.
The job of ‘Director of Government Relations and Affairs’ for cannabis companies did not exist eight months ago. On October 2018 Canada become the first country to legalize both recreational and medical cannabis use, creating a framework of policy led by Health Canada.
Each province is responsible for creating its own approach to cannabis access. The guiding document, the Cannabis Act, lays out a series of policies which strive to keep the public safe and keep cannabis away from minors. The level of government that is most affected by the supply chain of this new market are rural municipalities. Health Canada now regulates smell, and it is more than likely that many of us live close to a cultivating operation already.
Cannabis has helped many navigate complex situations that require creative thinking (Steve Jobs, Carl Sagan). It has helped expand thinking around science, create policy, advocate for access to services, healthcare and evidence informed policy.
I opened a co-working space to help navigate rural economic transitions. I ran for city politics. I published in peer reviewed journals. I educated myself in community economic development and then a master’s degree in business administration. I ran for mayor of Squamish. All while being acutely aware that my consumption of delicious plant matter was illegal.
The policy that has surrounded this plant has been based on language that does not reflect reason or science. This plant has been used as medicine since the third millennium BCE. As a result of legalization, the ancillary businesses that will be developed will include genetics, profiling of terpenes, agricultural innovation and molecular patenting on ways of delivery. Pharmaceutical companies will race to find the inflictions that can be treated by a plant that seems to work best as a full spectrum botanical.
Cannabis legalization is not unlike other regulatory industries. It has been downloaded to local municipalities to deal with business licences, infrastructure, enforcement of zoning, building permits, policing and bylaw enforcement. These changes have come with little education, and much confusion as the hundreds of craft British Columbian cannabis farmers begin their journey into regulatory frameworks and legalized economies of rural towns and farmlands.
Cannabis has contributed $87 million dollars in tax and licencing revenue to the State of Colorado in 2019 so far. It is easy to see the possibilities in municipalities that fully embrace the opportunities that come from opening up zoning for small businesses in this new industry.
Municipalities that practice prohibition, like the City of Surrey, will be faced with enforcing their own restrictive bylaws along with the expense. Cannabis cultivation will remain grey market if not given viable opportunities to enter the Health Canada program.
Squamish, BC has restrictive setbacks, and like many other municipalities has confined cultivation and all cannabis companies to industrial land. Those who choose to look to the future could discover that by embracing the entrepreneurism that comes from exiting prohibition may just be the panacea that British Columbia needs to survive downturns from mono-sector economics.
Cannabis offers so many opportunities. It is inclusive, and there are more positives than negatives. The global attitudes are changing towards this plant, and Canada can be a leader in the development of policy that works for all levels of government.
Susan Chapelle is a former councillor and presently a director of government relations for Pasha, a cannabis company based in Vancouver
