Cannabis was THE hot topic at Quesnel City Council on Tuesday night.
The politicians have directed staff on what they would like to see once the recreational sale of the product becomes legal next month, and that would be to have just one public retail store to start.
While some communities are going to have private outlets, Quesnel Council was unanimous in it’s concerns over who these private operators would be, and how they would be audited.
Mayor Bob Simpson…
“So if a private provider is providing this, it appears as though the audit process for them to maintain their license will be a phone call or coming in to take a look much like a Worksafe BC audit where the plant looks great on the day that the auditors show up and the rest of the time, you know it’s an accident waiting to happen.”
Council also prefers that the location be downtown beside the BC Liquor store, at least to start, because of it’s central location and the fact that it is not near any parks or playgrounds.
Councillor Shushil Thapar agrees…
“I think we should be open for something like BC Liquor and the public and see how that pans out. If that pans out good then we should proceed to the private ones, but the public one is basically the safe way of proceeding because BC Liquor employees will be trained in selling and they do turn down, because for them there is no incentive to sell more or less, so they won’t just give marijuana to the minor ones. On the other hand, the private ones, the more they sell the more money in their pockets.”
Only Councilloir John Brisco was opposed to Council’s preferred retail policy, noting that he was simply opposed to the legalization of marijuana in general.
The next step will be for staff to draft a policy and then it will go through a public review process.
Council also decided last night that marijuana will be treated like alcohol, which means that consumption will be prohibited in all public spaces.