By Ashley Wiebe

More questions than answers around marijuana legalization

Mar 27, 2017 | 4:17 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB —It could be legal for Canadians to smoke marijuana by July 2018.

The federal government is expected to release more details next month, when new legislation is introduced, but it seems there’s a lot more questions than answers when it comes to how the plan will be rolled out.

“We haven’t heard much,” said police chief Andy McGrogan. “We’ve been, kind of, sitting back with the rest of the public, wondering what’s going on, what it’s going to look like.”

The Medicine Hat Police Service feels handcuffed waiting for the federal government to figure out how to enforce the legalization of marijuana once it becomes legal.

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“It’s pretty clear now what’s legal and what’s illegal but we’re going to have all this new grey area that we’re going to have to, basically, tread through,” McGrogan said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government are expected to introduce legislation next month, with the intent that it’ll be legal to smoke it by July 1st, 2018.

But there’s a lot of unanswered questions, the biggest being around public safety and impaired driving.

“There’s no accurate way to measure the amount and if you did have the accurate measurement of the amount of, lets say THC, there’s no scientific proof to what equals the impairment of somebody who’s at a certain level,” McGrogan said.

It’s also unclear where it’ll be legal to smoke it.

“There’s all those public safety issues, like consumption in public and the nuisance,” McGrogan added. “A lot of us don’t like the smell and it’s going to create problems.”

“There’s also concerns about who regulates it,” said retired police inspector turned Member of Parliament Glen Motz. “How is it, if we’re going to legalize it and this government seems, the Liberal government seems intent on legalizing it, how’s it managed?”

Motz said he’s opposed to the legalization.

“I don’t think it’s well thought out. “I don’t think it makes a lot of sense and I think if Canadians were to weigh in on this conversation, you’d find the majority of Canadians, of all ages, would not be supportive,” he said.

The Liberals promised to introduce legislation around the legalization by the spring of 2017.

If the legislation is introduced next month, Trudeau will have hit his platform deadline.

“You have a Prime Minister who wanted to appeal to a demographic of our society in order to get elected,” Motz said. “I actually hope this is one of his many campaign promises that he hasn’t been able to follow through on.”