Customs Law should be amended to make provision for the import and export of cannabis and cannabis products, as appropriate;
To avoid the implications of Anti-money laundering and Proceeds of Crime legislation which currently prohibit legitimate banking and other financial transactions for illegal cannabis, commercial cannabis activities will need to be legalised;
Small farmers and small business persons should be included in production and supply arrangements with appropriate controls limiting large enterprise and foreign involvement;
An equitable land use policy for marijuana cultivation should be formulated;
Distribution points for cannabis and its products should be limited;
Special provision should be made to protect religious rights in the new regime;
Retroactivity should be used as a tool to correct past injustices, such as expungement of criminal records and CSME rules;
Restrictions that support no public smoking and vaping of cannabis in alignment with tobacco smoking and vaping restrictions should be adopted. Cannabis / marijuana use should be banned in public spaces with appropriate exceptions for Rastafarians on religious grounds. Such restrictions should include prohibiting use in workplaces, enclosed public spaces, on health authority and school board property, transit shelters, common areas of apartment building and community care facilities. In particular, measures that ban consumption in places frequented by children should be adopted (Child Health Care BC 2017); States should regulate the locations of marijuana retail establishments, by ensuring an appropriate distance from playgrounds and schools and also prohibiting stores that sell other products to minors from selling marijuana (Saloner et al 2016);
Regulations should be aimed at reducing the likelihood of children accidentally ingesting marijuana. States with legal marijuana can regulate the appearance, packaging, and labeling of products likely to be appealing to youth, such as marijuana -infused candy and baked goods (Saloner et al 2016);
Limit marijuana’s appeal by implementing restrictions on marketing through traditional media such as billboards, television, radio, newspapers;
Retail availability of marijuana should be tightly regulated. States should develop licensing policies applying to all actors in the recreational marijuana supply chain, including retailers (Saloner et al 2016);
Apply limits of allowable THC in products (CMHAO (2017);
Drugged driving regulations should be created;229
Ensure appropriate and reasonable pricing to deter consumers from purchasing cannabis through illegal means CMHAO (2017);
Moderate taxes should be imposed taking care that the black market is not reinvigorated; 230
Guo Hua Li et al (2013) Murphy and Carnevale (2016). A weight-based tax is fixed by quantity, for example, $50 dollars an ounce. Such a tax is easy to administer, simple to understand, and can be implemented quickly. However, it creates an incentive for sellers to differentiate products by potency, which could harm consumers (Caulkins et al. 2015). A price-based tax—also known as an excise tax—is set as a percentage (ad valorem) of value. Such a tax is levied on the seller and treated as a business cost. Typically, it is passed along to consumers in the final retail price. However, states should consider that higher retail prices spurred by this tax could run counter to the goal of reducing the size of the illegal market. A price-based tax is simple and easy to implement and administer. But, if imposed on cultivators, producers, and processors, it creates incentives for tax evasion from “phony prices” along the supply chain (Oglesby 2015). A potency-based tax is assessed on a product’s THC content and could potentially control product quality. Unlike a weight-based tax, 229 230
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