City Police Preparing for Transition into Marijuana Legalization

LETHBRIDGE – Lethbridge Police are doing what they can to prepare the city, as the April 20, 2017 legalizing of marijuana across Canada draws closer.
 
On Monday, Police Chief, Rob Davis, and Inspector, Jason Dobirstein, went over the workplace and public safety, as well as the various social issues at play.
 
An ad-hoc committee, on behalf of the Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police (AACP), released an official position paper (found in the September 12 Community Issue Committee agenda) on the legalization of marijuana that the two used as a frame of reference. It lays out clear examples and other questions that have arisen, using Colorado and Washington state as a base for comparison.
 
The biggest areas of concerns Davis and Dobirstein have for Lethbridge are the equal regulation of derivative products, including certain edibles or oils that tend to be more potent than marijuana bud, accomodating rezoning across the city, how hiring and workplace safety policies will need to change and how police resources will be affected with a possible increase in organized crime.
 
However, the two made it clear that research into the various facets of marijuana use and regulation have been severely stifled, saying that it makes it challenging to be fully prepared. They stated that testing for any other drug usually takes upwards of 15 years to complete.
 
“The scientific research on the effects and impacts of it, and how it works when it’s coordinated with alcohol and the damage potentially it could cause… We just don’t know a lot of that. That’s really out of our scope. We just have to wait and see what the federal government says,” noted Dobirstein.
 
It was added that a partnership with the City of Lethbridge and Council is necessary when it comes time to roll out regulations and rezoning.
 
The AACP report ultimately concluded that Canadian law enforcement is in a better position than its American counterpart, due to the lead time given to properly prepare.
 
“[It’s] a very aggressive timeline. Our concern is that it’s going to require all levels of government, federal, provincial and municipal, to be ready for it,” said Davis. “It’s not to try and stop it. It’s to regulate it so that we keep our communities safe.”