Health committee  I want the act to succeed. It's a good piece of legislation. It's heading in the right direction. I see a lot of wrong with it. I see too much criminalization. To go to the point earlier, why are we setting limits? We don't do that with alcohol. I think all of this is going to change over time, but let's first stop criminalizing people for this activity.

Health committee  No, they're not. I do think it's important to look at the context. If you have no retail in a province, for example, then those concerns may be valid, but as long as you have retail.... I look at this as analogous to making your own wine or making your own beer. Most people don't want to do that.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  I guess the best answer is “it depends”. I would hope not. I would think that part of the rationale for this is that we're putting in place provincial systems of distribution. As I said earlier, I'm surprised to see possession of illicit cannabis as a crime, and I'm not sure how that is going to work, how it's going to be defined over time, but also production of illicit cannabis.

Health committee  I don't, unless, I suppose, there is an absence of any logic, but I can think of a number of reasons as to why the owners of an apartment building might want to introduce that restriction—in terms of smoking potentially, in terms of odours, and in terms of the installation of grows.

Health committee  We know that historically there has been a problem, but of course a lot of that difficulty can be traced to the illicit nature of the trade. The kinds of problems we've seen in the real estate industry with tenanted grow ops and the like can be essentially eliminated with a legal market.

Health committee  Yes, I think that's right. I have some faith in Health Canada that this will ultimately be its position, because these experiences are relatively recent. I have confidence that there will be a change in schedule 4 and that edibles will be part of the licit market. I hope I'm not wrong on that.

Health committee  I'd have to say in some respects that the issues of e-commerce, and how we roll this out in terms of the banking system, all of that, is somewhat beyond my area of expertise, but I would agree that's going to be critical to its success. I would think that there are many small communities across the country where you're not going to have any form of retail, and there are many municipalities, too.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  I think if edibles are not added to schedule 4, obviously you're going to risk a continuation of the illicit market. I think that's particularly regrettable because the people who want to consume edibles are often people who fall within the medical realm rather than recreational realm.

Health committee  The prices that are charged by Vancouver dispensaries are not dramatically different from the prices that are charged by the licensed producers. One could say that much of what comes out of the dispensaries is a product of organized crime, because by definition the licensed producers would lose their licences if it were known that they were supplying the dispensaries.

Health committee  I think of the quiet enjoyment of premises. I'm thinking of risk of fire if people want to install metal halide lights. That's an issue that would have to be closely regulated. Most people wouldn't want to live in multi-family dwellings that have a lot of cannabis smell going back and forth.

Health committee  I think alcohol is a very good analogy here. We know that most young people can get access to alcohol. It's said that it's easier to get access to cannabis today than it is to get access to alcohol, so I asked my first-year students last week in class. I was curious. I would have to say that the overwhelming majority of them said, no, it's much easier to get access to alcohol.

Health committee  Yes. I don't think we're going to solve this problem through aggressive law enforcement. I think we're going to solve it much the same way we solved the tobacco problem, through aggressive public health education, through aggressive regulation of non-smokers' rights. To the extent that young people recognize the risks involved, they're going to be much more careful.

Health committee  You have a system in place of licensed producers for medical use. As you know, the number of users in the medical system has grown dramatically, from about 7,000 to more than 130,000. That same system could be put in place for recreational users. The products that recreational users seek are in many instances not dramatically different, not at all different, from the products that medicinal users are seeking.