Re: Pot shop sprouts in Parksville (March 8).
The issue of shutting down marijuana dispensaries has again come to Parksville, with results that are as predictable as they are disappointing. Ornithologists would have enjoyed the debate. It offered the spectacle of a councillor transforming into a peacock one moment and an ostrich the next.
Councillor Oates took it upon himself to decry the presence of marijuana in Parksville, implying that recreational use was uncommon in the community. If he had attended last November’s meeting on the fentanyl crisis within Oceanside, he would have known that approximately one in three Oceanside residents uses marijuana. If any of the other councillors had attended, perhaps they could have corrected him.
The real question surrounding this issue is not whether council is technically correct in terms of the operation of the law to shut down dispensaries, since they are. The recent B.C. Supreme Court case in favour of the City of Abbotsford attests to this, particularly paragraph 66 of the ruling. The real problem is the public safety implications from neglecting the unfolding fentanyl crisis in the discussion.
Fentanyl is often mixed with other forms of narcotics, and while unlikely, there’s no guarantee that illegally grown marijuana will be free of the drug. The more frequently distribution is pushed underground, the greater that risk becomes. Though the mayor as well as Burden and Oates advocate for law and order, in practice they will only enrich criminal enterprise. They speak of enforcing regulations while they roll the dice with the health of some of the most vulnerable citizens.
Instead of imagining the world as they would like it, council should be dealing with the imperfect world we live in. Shut down those who disregard the law, but open the door for legitimate distribution now, not when it becomes politically expedient to do so.
Scott Harrison
Qualicum Beach