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Are You Raking the Pot on Cannabis? in Canada
Take this memo from a leading Canadian broadcaster, acquired by Quartz at Work. It tells employees that, “A person does not have a right to be impaired in the workplace.” The memo also offers to connect employees with counseling organizations, whether for themselves or for guidance in talking to their kids about cannabis. And then it addresses some pressing questions about using or sharing weed at work. The TL,DR is that marijuana should not figure into your next Secret Santa gift exchange—not at this workplace, anyway. Here are some excerpts from the memo’s FAQ section:
What Canadian employers are telling their staff about legal cannabis
Now that recreational marijuana is legal in Canada, its citizens are sure to become far more cannabis-literate. Discussion of cannabis consumption already has taken over the airwaves, where etiquette experts are weighing in with tips for dinner parties, and the do’s and dont’s of instagramming gatherings where people are smoking or vaping marijuana. It won’t be long before wide swaths of the populace are able to grasp expert-level nuances, like the difference in pot’s effects according to its varied strains.
But employers aren’t getting into the weeds—in either sense of the term. Because the science isn’t developed enough for any set level of “safe” marijuana to be established, they’re erring on the side of caution, says Mario Torres, an employment lawyer with Brazeau Seller Law in Ottawa.
With drinks, we know what 40% alcohol is, and what four cocktails at lunch will do to your performance, he notes. But we can’t be as confident in our knowledge of cannabis, in large part because prohibition laws have stunted research. The dosing is still imprecise, and the drug’s effect is unpredictable. The level of THC in a product, a person’s experience with marijuana, and the method of consumption all impact the drug’s intensity and the duration of any altered state.
As a result, employers at jobs where safety is a priority have issued highly restrictive guidelines; airlines are mandating that many employees not use recreational cannabis off-duty at all.
For office jobs, the message is that essentially, nothing has changed: You’re expected to show up sharp enough to perform on the job. Unless you have a legitimate prescription for medicinal marijuana, the workplace does not need to accommodate your cannabis habit.
Take this memo from a leading Canadian broadcaster, acquired by Quartz at Work. It tells employees that, “A person does not have a right to be impaired in the workplace.”
When considering any impact that legalization of cannabis will have at [our company], there are three distinct areas we consider: Impairment, Smoking and Medicinal.
Impairment: Cannabis, medical or otherwise, will be treated like any drug, alcohol or other intoxicant that can cause mental and/or physical impairment, and can impact your ability to perform your work. A person does not have a right to be impaired in the workplace.
Smoking: [The company] will continue to maintain a smoke-free workplace to ensure the safety and well-being for all people. This includes cannabis, tobacco or any other substance that emits smoke or vapour.
Medicinal: Similar to any other prescribed treatment from a physician, we will ensure people with a medical cannabis prescription are accommodated in the workplace provided that smoking and/or impairment restrictions are not compromised.
The memo also offers to connect employees with counseling organizations, whether for themselves or for guidance in talking to their kids about cannabis. And then it addresses some pressing questions about using or sharing weed at work. The TL;DR is that marijuana should not figure into your next Secret Santa gift exchange—not at this workplace, anyway. Here are some excerpts from the memo’s FAQ section:
Can I consume recreational cannabis prior to, or while at work?
No. [The company] is responsible for the well-being of all our people in the workplace – intoxication or impairment in the workplace is unacceptable and legalization of recreational cannabis does not change that. Impairment or intoxication is also strictly forbidden while operating any [company] owned motor vehicles.
Recreational cannabis is treated like any other controlled substance, such as alcohol, and the purchase and consumption (in all forms) both publically and privately is regulated by Provincial Legislation and the Cannabis Act.
Can I share or sell cannabis at work?
No. This is inappropriate and would be grounds for discipline or termination.
Can I accept or give gifts of edible cannabis products?
No. Sale of cannabis edible products and concentrates for sale will not become legal in October 2018. Since they remain illegal products, they are prohibited to give or receive as gifts.
Finally, because so many Canadian jobs require travel to the US, the memo notes that employees are responsible for staying compliant with US immigration laws about both personal use of marijuana and any investments in a cannabis company. “This applies for business travel to other countries as well,” it says.
But let’s say an employee ignores the memo and existing code of conduct guidelines; what’s a manager to do if an employee seems high after a coffee break?
Apologizing for the standard lawyer’s response, Torres explains that there is no single answer. In the end, employment law is contract law, he says, so workplace drug testing, which is generally considered a human rights violation in Canada, would only be possible if employees have already signed an agreement agreeing to it under specific circumstances.
“The employer does have the right to manage their operations as they see fit, and because they see fit to manage the workplace in a safe and healthy manner, they can discipline employees for a breach of contract,” says Torres.
This is about liability, not morality, he says. In some workplaces, rather than have an accident occur because a policy was too lenient, a company would rather have employees take action against an organization to prove that its policy is overly prohibitive, perhaps a violation of a person’s rights and freedoms. Then an outside decision-maker might force management to loosen restrictions.
In an office job, should someone be unable to speak clearly because they’re impaired, or if a supervisor needs to ask, “What’s this weird email you sent me?” Torres says, the situation becomes a management problem, as it would with an employee suspected of drinking. Employers can begin laying the grounds for dismissal.
However, any suspicion of substance abuse might first trigger an employer’s “duty to inquire,” he notes. “I would caution my employers not to walk up to that employee who is sitting there stinking of weed and say, ‘You’re fired’,” says Torres. Instead, the employer may be obligated to start a conversation and offer assistance or time off. If the cannabis habit remains a lingering issue, an employer can dismiss an employee citing undue hardship.
In time, Torres predicts, you’ll see contract negotiations rewriting the rules around cannabis. In fact, it’s already happening.
Rules for flying with weed and other long weekend travel reminders
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If you are flying within Canada this up coming weekend you are able to bring your weed with you
Given the frigid weather and general melancholy of a Saskatchewan winter, many people are preparing to flee for greener pastures this coming long weekend.
The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), the national crown corporation responsible for security and screening at airports, made some changes to their regulations back in October due to the legalization of cannabis.
Here are a few changes to keep in mind if you are flying somewhere for the break.
Pot on a plane
Anyone flying will be permitted to bring the maximum legal possession limit of 30 grams of recreational cannabis with them on a flight, so long as it is within Canada. Christine Langlois, senior advisor of communications and spokesperson for CATSA, said locating illegal drugs is not the main focus as it is not part of their mandate.
"When we happen to see something that might look illegal to us then we call the police and the police decide, but that's their job to say what is legal or not," said Langlois.
That means that you don't need to show the receipts from the dispensary where you purchase your cannabis.
As for bringing it with you on a plane, Langlois said that so long as it is within the legal limit they aren't too concerned with how it is transported. It can be checked or brought along as part of your carry-on luggage.
"It is an allowed item. So allowed items don't have specific ways to package them," said Langlois. So unlike liquids, gels, non-solid food and personal items, your cannabis does not need to packed in a re-sealable clear plastic bag.
These rules are all specifically for domestic flight.
"The thing to remember is that you can not cross international borders with it. Whether you go out of Canada or come in," said Langlois. That means that even if a traveller is heading to an American state or another nation where cannabis is legal you are not allowed to fly across international borders with marijuana.
While not specifically related to the consumption of cannabis, vapes are allowed in carry-on bags but not in checked luggage due to their batteries, according to Langlois
Salt, sand or seasoning
Things like toothpaste, peanut butter or Nutella all fall under the gel category in CATSA regulations. That means that it can be part of your carry-on luggage so long as it 100 millilitres or less and fits in a 1 litre clear resealable plastic bag.
She said another recent change to the CATSA regulations is the quantity of inorganic powders people are allowed to bring with them. Salt for both the kitchen or bath, hand warmers and sand all fall under this category. Each passenger is allowed to have 350 ml of these substances in carry-on bags.
Amounts over 350 ml are allowed so long as they are in your checked luggage.
For any other questions, Langlois recommended people use the CATSA app or the website, which offers a searchable database called "What Can I Bring?"
The tool allows travellers to punch in an item to see if it is allowed on flights and, if so, how much.
"Really it comes down to if you're well prepared it's easier on everybody," said Langlois.
Marijuana has been legal in Canada for a year. So why are most users still buying it from criminals?
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In many ways, Dana is a typical Canadian cannabis consumer.
She's young, professional, and — despite the country legalising the sale of marijuana last year — still buys her weed on the black market.
"It's legal here, but it's not legal elsewhere," she says.
"I travel to the US quite a bit and I need to be eligible for visas in other places. I just don't trust that the information about me buying weed will not be shared and used against me in this era of insecure data."
Rather than buying from government-approved suppliers, the yoga teacher and designer prefers to get her marijuana from friends, family members and an illegal dispensary near her home in Toronto.
She trusts the product she gets from her black market sources — and the high that it provides.
"I'm not someone who, like, wants to be hit over the head with weed. I'd prefer something a bit milder," she says.
"A lot of the brands that are being sold at the official stores are bred and grown hydroponically, so they tend to be incredibly strong and that's just not why I do it."
Legal producers have to 'start from scratch'
When the Cannabis Act passed through Canada's parliament last year, making it only the second nation in the world to legalise marijuana, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proclaimed it would "keep the money out of the pockets of organised crime".
But one year since the law came into effect, the government's vow to "completely replace" the illicit trade in cannabis remains unfulfilled.
In fact, despite the rollout of legal marijuana stores and online retailers, the government's own statistics show that almost half of buyers — people like Dana — get their weed from drug dealers and illicit dispensaries.
According to Michael Armstrong, an associate professor at Brock University's Goodman School of Business, it comes down to the restrictions around legalisation.
Canada's version is different to what's been rolled out in American states like California and Colorado, where the objective was to bring illegal producers out into the open.
"Canada went with a different model, a regulated pharmaceutical model," Professor Armstrong said.
"Health Canada would issue licences to producers, who had to develop growing areas with very high cleanliness standards, lots of monitoring and lots of testing."
According to Professor Armstrong, there's "no way" a basement grow-op or even a "relatively well-built" green house would be able to pass the inspection standards.
"So any existing producer who wanted to be part of the legal side would have to start from scratch," he said.
"I'm sure that what most of them decided to do instead was just keep producing for the black market, because it's still as profitable as ever."
'It's a little less clinical'
There's also the convenience of having a branch of the illegal dispensary chain CAFE close by.
The Toronto municipal government has struggled to shut down the retailer, even with a concerted program of raids.
This article contains content that is not yet available here.
Police have gone so far as to install giant concrete barriers to block the entrances of some locations, only to be forced to remove them after discovering people were living inside or staff had moved sales onto the street.
"I think that there's a much, like, a much better vibe at the dispensaries," said Dana.
"It's a little less clinical, a little more personal. The people who work in those spaces are cool and they have the knowledge."
By contrast, differing approaches from provincial governments mean that in many parts of Canada, there aren't enough legal cannabis retailers to meet demand.
Quebec and Ontario, which account for more than half the country's population, have opened just 47 stores between them.
Alberta, meanwhile, hosts more than 250, despite having a fifth as many residents.
Supplied: Alex McClintock
And although online sales are available in every province, they've proved to be dramatically less popular than brick and mortar stores.
The end result is that many Canadian stoners, particularly in rural and regional areas of Quebec and Ontario, prefer to get their pot the same way they always have.
Even in Toronto, where five stores serve a population of three million, buying cannabis legally can be a hassle.
"The stores are still only in certain parts of the city," said Dana.
"And because there's so few of them, there's often really long lineups and this arduous process where they're constantly checking ID, and it can just take a really long time."
Not enough to go around
Then there are problems with supply. The first year of legalisation has been characterised by shortages, especially of dried flower — the standard type of cannabis for smoking.
Producers, many of whom are new to the industry, have had difficulty processing enough cannabis to meet demand and struggled with government labelling requirements, leading to empty shelves and consumer complaints about mouldy products.
Canada has legalised cannabis. Australia should follow suit
We're late learners when it comes to drug laws. But whether it's next year or a decade from now, legalising cannabis is no longer a question of if, but when, writes Matt Noffs.
"Last October, producers had not yet developed enough capacity to process and ship dry cannabis products," said Professor Armstrong.
"That was kind of expected, but it was less expected that it took them six months before they started to successfully increase output."
According to Jay Rosenthal, the president of the industry research firm Business of Cannabis, the legal sector is not yet able to provide the same kind of high-end product the most sophisticated consumers demand.
At the same time, black market prices have actually fallen since legalisation.
"A recent study showed that 10 per cent of cannabis users consume two-thirds of all cannabis," said Rosenthal.
"That's a really small number of people consuming a huge chunk of the cannabis. Those people are the ones that know quality.
"They are price sensitive and they don't have a ton of retail options. We're not providing proper quality in the right quantities at the right price."
And for Canadians who want to eat their marijuana rather than smoke it, the black market is still the only option.
The Cannabis Act dictated that legalisation be phased: the manufacturing of edible products was only allowed from last week, and the certification process means they won't hit shelves until December.
Year two and beyond
Both Rosenthal and Armstrong agree that the legal sector will continue to chip away at the illicit share of the cannabis market in the coming years.
Rosenthal predicts the rollout of edible products, topical creams and vape oils will be a game changer, while Armstrong points out that the old way of doing things was never going to change overnight.
"You had this established black market around for a long time," he said.
"It's not going to go away quietly, just like any other industry. It's going to fight back and try and stay competitive.
"Canada went first. We couldn't say 'look, here are five other countries: what worked for them and what didn't?'
"It was an experiment, particularly at the provincial level, so now is a perfect time for governments to go back and review what's happened in the first 12 months and start learning from that experiment."
Use Your Credit Card to Buy Weed in Canada? Get Banned For Life From the USA
How your credit card bills could lead to a cannabis enforcement
Use Your Credit Card To Buy Weed In Canada? Get Banned For Life From The USA
The United States has long been thought of as the land of the free. But much has changed ever since POTUS Trump came into the picture, and since Canada decided that they wanted to legalize recreational cannabis.
A few months ago, US Customs and Border Patrol announced that any Canadian who uses pot can be banned from the border – FOR LIFE. Even investors who don’t touch the plant can also suffer these consequences. It all boils down to the fact that cannabis is still a federally illegal substance in the USA, so if you toke up in your home land and it’s perfectly legal there, it’s not going to save you from the repercussions.
To add insult to injury, US authorities can rightfully access Canadians’ credit card information, reports Global News. All transactions that go on in Canadians’ credit card data can be shared with the US government without the need for a warrant. The same applies to other non-Americans. This means that if the US government wants to start finding out exactly which Canadians are buying and smoking pot once October 17 rolls around the corner, they can absolutely do it.
This also means that Canadians may be put in a compromising situation at the border when, if asked by a US border guard if they smoke pot, they can be banned for life – but the other choice is to also deny it. In doing so, if found guilty, this could also mean getting banned for life.
In other words, Canadians are caught between a rock and a hard place.
It’s not an enviable position to be in, especially if you frequent the US.
But there surely has to be a way around it.
Canadians who live in provinces and territories may need to first find a way of obtaining their pot without using their credit card. Many provinces will open up government-run websites to sell them, so using your credit card may be inevitable. Global News reports that in Nova Scotia, cannabis will be regulated by the Nova Scotia Liquor Commission (NSLC), so when you buy cannabis online, it will be concealed under the NSLC’s name.
In a Global News article from last April on the topic, former assistant federal privacy commissioner Heather Black said: “Any information that goes outside of Canada is up for grabs by local law enforcement.”
“It’s part of the globalization of data. It goes all over the place,” Black says. “American authorities are pretty greedy for scooping up information, and they clearly don’t confine themselves to the borders of the United States.”
What’s unfair is that Canadians don’t have the same right over Americans’ credit card information the same way that the US government does.
“In Canada, we would be protected by the Charter. In the US we’re not protected by the Fourth Amendment, as non-US persons, so there’s no constitutional protection for our data,” says Lisa Austin, University of Toronto law professor.
Privacy Agreements
All five big banks have a privacy agreement stating that the financial data of customers can be stored beyond Canadian borders, allowing their information to be subject to the laws of whichever country it’s stored in. For one, the agreement of BMO states that companies storing data “may be located outside of Canada (such as in the United States) and may be required to disclose information to courts, government authorities, regulators or law enforcement in accordance with applicable law in that country.”
The 2005 PATRIOT Act states that Canadians’ credit card data which is held in the US may be accessed by American authorities. The act is an anti-terrorism law that was passed in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. It states that “… certain US intelligence and police surveillance and information collection tolls have been expanded, and procedural hurdles for US law enforcement agencies have been minimized. Under section 2015 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Federal Bureau of Investigation can access records held in the United States.”
For Canadians, the best resort as of now would be to use debit card whenever purchasing pot. Better yet, cash is still king.
Marijuana has been legal in Canada for a year. So why are most users still buying it from criminals?
Article share options
Share this on
Send this by
In many ways, Dana is a typical Canadian cannabis consumer.
She's young, professional, and — despite the country legalising the sale of marijuana last year — still buys her weed on the black market.
"It's legal here, but it's not legal elsewhere," she says.
"I travel to the US quite a bit and I need to be eligible for visas in other places. I just don't trust that the information about me buying weed will not be shared and used against me in this era of insecure data."
Rather than buying from government-approved suppliers, the yoga teacher and designer prefers to get her marijuana from friends, family members and an illegal dispensary near her home in Toronto.
She trusts the product she gets from her black market sources — and the high that it provides.
"I'm not someone who, like, wants to be hit over the head with weed. I'd prefer something a bit milder," she says.
"A lot of the brands that are being sold at the official stores are bred and grown hydroponically, so they tend to be incredibly strong and that's just not why I do it."
Legal producers have to 'start from scratch'
When the Cannabis Act passed through Canada's parliament last year, making it only the second nation in the world to legalise marijuana, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proclaimed it would "keep the money out of the pockets of organised crime".
But one year since the law came into effect, the government's vow to "completely replace" the illicit trade in cannabis remains unfulfilled.
In fact, despite the rollout of legal marijuana stores and online retailers, the government's own statistics show that almost half of buyers — people like Dana — get their weed from drug dealers and illicit dispensaries.
According to Michael Armstrong, an associate professor at Brock University's Goodman School of Business, it comes down to the restrictions around legalisation.
Canada's version is different to what's been rolled out in American states like California and Colorado, where the objective was to bring illegal producers out into the open.
"Canada went with a different model, a regulated pharmaceutical model," Professor Armstrong said.
"Health Canada would issue licences to producers, who had to develop growing areas with very high cleanliness standards, lots of monitoring and lots of testing."
According to Professor Armstrong, there's "no way" a basement grow-op or even a "relatively well-built" green house would be able to pass the inspection standards.
"So any existing producer who wanted to be part of the legal side would have to start from scratch," he said.
"I'm sure that what most of them decided to do instead was just keep producing for the black market, because it's still as profitable as ever."
'It's a little less clinical'
There's also the convenience of having a branch of the illegal dispensary chain CAFE close by.
The Toronto municipal government has struggled to shut down the retailer, even with a concerted program of raids.
This article contains content that is not yet available here.
Police have gone so far as to install giant concrete barriers to block the entrances of some locations, only to be forced to remove them after discovering people were living inside or staff had moved sales onto the street.
"I think that there's a much, like, a much better vibe at the dispensaries," said Dana.
"It's a little less clinical, a little more personal. The people who work in those spaces are cool and they have the knowledge."
By contrast, differing approaches from provincial governments mean that in many parts of Canada, there aren't enough legal cannabis retailers to meet demand.
Quebec and Ontario, which account for more than half the country's population, have opened just 47 stores between them.
Alberta, meanwhile, hosts more than 250, despite having a fifth as many residents.
Supplied: Alex McClintock
And although online sales are available in every province, they've proved to be dramatically less popular than brick and mortar stores.
The end result is that many Canadian stoners, particularly in rural and regional areas of Quebec and Ontario, prefer to get their pot the same way they always have.
Even in Toronto, where five stores serve a population of three million, buying cannabis legally can be a hassle.
"The stores are still only in certain parts of the city," said Dana.
"And because there's so few of them, there's often really long lineups and this arduous process where they're constantly checking ID, and it can just take a really long time."
Not enough to go around
Then there are problems with supply. The first year of legalisation has been characterised by shortages, especially of dried flower — the standard type of cannabis for smoking.
Producers, many of whom are new to the industry, have had difficulty processing enough cannabis to meet demand and struggled with government labelling requirements, leading to empty shelves and consumer complaints about mouldy products.
Canada has legalised cannabis. Australia should follow suit
We're late learners when it comes to drug laws. But whether it's next year or a decade from now, legalising cannabis is no longer a question of if, but when, writes Matt Noffs.
"Last October, producers had not yet developed enough capacity to process and ship dry cannabis products," said Professor Armstrong.
"That was kind of expected, but it was less expected that it took them six months before they started to successfully increase output."
According to Jay Rosenthal, the president of the industry research firm Business of Cannabis, the legal sector is not yet able to provide the same kind of high-end product the most sophisticated consumers demand.
At the same time, black market prices have actually fallen since legalisation.
"A recent study showed that 10 per cent of cannabis users consume two-thirds of all cannabis," said Rosenthal.
"That's a really small number of people consuming a huge chunk of the cannabis. Those people are the ones that know quality.
"They are price sensitive and they don't have a ton of retail options. We're not providing proper quality in the right quantities at the right price."
And for Canadians who want to eat their marijuana rather than smoke it, the black market is still the only option.
The Cannabis Act dictated that legalisation be phased: the manufacturing of edible products was only allowed from last week, and the certification process means they won't hit shelves until December.
Year two and beyond
Both Rosenthal and Armstrong agree that the legal sector will continue to chip away at the illicit share of the cannabis market in the coming years.
Rosenthal predicts the rollout of edible products, topical creams and vape oils will be a game changer, while Armstrong points out that the old way of doing things was never going to change overnight.
"You had this established black market around for a long time," he said.
"It's not going to go away quietly, just like any other industry. It's going to fight back and try and stay competitive.
"Canada went first. We couldn't say 'look, here are five other countries: what worked for them and what didn't?'
"It was an experiment, particularly at the provincial level, so now is a perfect time for governments to go back and review what's happened in the first 12 months and start learning from that experiment."
Canada asks: can police officers smoke marijuana after legalization?
Vancouver, Ottawa, Regina and Montreal will let officers use it recreationally as Calgary introduced a zero-consumption policy
In Vancouver, officers are asked to self-evaluate their mental fitness for duty, but Toronto has yet to publicly announce a policy. Photograph: Chris Roussakis/AFP/Getty Images
In Vancouver, officers are asked to self-evaluate their mental fitness for duty, but Toronto has yet to publicly announce a policy. Photograph: Chris Roussakis/AFP/Getty Images
Last modified on Fri 5 Oct 2018 19.38 BST
Police in Canada want to know: can we get high?
Forces across the country are wrestling with the question of whether to determine if officers can smoke marijuana when it is legalized on 17 October.
Most cities have yet to finalize a policy on the issue, but four have already come out in favour of consumption. Vancouver, Ottawa, Regina and Montreal will all let their officers use the drug recreationally – as long as they’re fit for service.
“We don’t tell our employees they cannot drink alcohol in their own time, away from work,” the Regina police chief, Evan Bray, said in a statement, suggesting marijuana should be treated in a similar manner. In Vancouver, officers are asked to self-evaluate their mental fitness for duty.
Those drafting the policies say they are appealing to “common sense” regulations: “It’s just like any other workplace: you can’t come to work if you’re impaired by alcohol or a drug, even if the drug is prescription medicine,” Supt David Haye of the Saskatoon police told the CBC.
In contrast, Calgary is the first city to have introduced a zero-consumption policy.
“[Officers] who are qualified to use firearms and are able to be operationally deployed, as well as sworn police recruits, are prohibited from using recreational cannabis on or off duty,” said an internal memo from the Calgary police. The union representing the officers plans to fight the rule after complaints from officers.
The Canadian military has said that soldiers can ingest cannabis – but must do so at least eight hours before they report for duty.
Police in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, has yet to publicly announce a policy on cannabis, but has already had to deal with high-profile officers getting high. Earlier in the year, two Toronto officers were caught consuming a cannabis-infused chocolate bar while on duty. After they began to experience hallucinations, the pair requested backup.
The two officers were suspended following an internal investigation and are now facing charges for obstruction of justice and breach of trust.
Weed is Legal in Canada, But Can Employers Still Drug Test?
Weed is legal in Canada, but many employees and employers want to know what that means in regards to marijuana use inside and outside the workplace. The real question comes down to how employers and employees will work out marijuana use outside of the workplace. So far, the CBC reports that the federal government has not updated the Canada Labour Code following the marijuana legalization, rather deciding to leave it up to the individual workplaces to determine their own drug test policies.
Labour Minister Patty Hajdu told the newspaper that the government is “evaluating whether additional regulations are required under the Canada Labour Code, including drug testing for certain safety-sensitive occupations.”
Since legalization appeared on the horizon, many Canadian companies and public institutions have been scrambling to update their drug policies before the federal regulators — particularly in occupations where there is a safety risk involved. For example, Air Canada recently ruffled feathers by prohibiting marijuana use both for on- and off-duty pilots. Many police departments have reportedly banned the off-duty use of marijuana as well.
However, unlike alcohol, there aren’t straightforward drug testing methods to see if a person is currently impaired on marijuana. This means that many marijuana drug tests may rely on long-term tests that do not accurately determine impairment— but still violate privacy concerns.
Can You Drug Test in Canada?
In 2013, Canada’s Supreme Court ruled in a case against Irving Pulp and Paper Ltd. that determined the limits of random alcohol and drug testing. The 6-3 ruling found that drug testing is an invasion of privacy, and there are only a few instances where a drug test may be permitted in the workplace.
Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), which is the government agency that protects human rights, explained that Canadian law generally only permits drug testing in safety-sensitive workplaces but does not permit it for most professions.
“Because of the potential to intrude on people’s privacy, drug and alcohol testing can only be justified in very narrow circumstances – where there are health and safety concerns in dangerous work environments in which people are doing safety-sensitive work,” said OHRC on their website .
The OHRC dismissed a common assumption in the United States that drug tests can be carried out to promote efficiency and productivity among employees, even going so far as to argue drug testing has no direct relationship to job performance.
“Drug and alcohol testing that has no demonstrated relationship to job safety and performance, or where there has been no evidence of enhanced safety risks in the workplace, has been found to violate employees’ rights.”
In many cases, industries would like to ban pot use when an employee is on the job — particularly in industries such as transportation and construction where safety concerns can present an issue.
But marijuana is not a just a recreational drug. When it comes to medicinal use, an adjustment will need to be put in place to allow the use of cannabis as a medicine while the employee is on the job. Their cases, however, will be determined on an individual basis, and if there are safety concerns involved, employees who use medical cannabis should not be impaired while on the job.
Oil sands, mining and diving workers are subject to testing
Alberta energy giant Suncor Energy, who was sued by multiple counties in Colorado for their contribution to climate change , introduced random alcohol testings for jobs with safety concerns in its oil sands operations back. The union representing the oil sands workers filed a complaint arguing that the test violated their privacy.
Eventually, the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench sided with the energy giant to rule against the energy company. The Supreme Court has signaled that they will not hear the union’s appeal.
Under Canada’s Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), there are three industries that expressly prohibit impairment or the presence of alcohol or drugs in workplaces. The three industries are offshore oil and gas, mining, and diving.
Drug Testing in the United States
When it comes to human rights, it’s increasingly clear that the United States is more than a few kilometers behind our friendly neighbors to the north. Case in point: drug testing is commonplace in the United States, and not only in roles where safety concerns are prevalent.
A 2014 scientific survey of U.S. employees showed that 48.2% indicated that drug testing occurred at their workplace. Most of the larger corporations — basically all of the Fortune 500 companies — do some form of drug testing.
However, an employer’s right to regulate employee behavior during the workday does not automatically give them the right to tell you what to do once you sit down on your couch after a long day at work.
According to the Atlantic , the former President Ronald Reagan was responsible for the starting the U.S. business infatuation with drug testing. In 1988, Reagan signed an executive order mandating drug tests for all federal personnel and certain contract workers. Companies around the country, while not obligated by law, took a hint from great actor-in-chief and began to conduct their own.
Author of the book, “Alcohol and Illicit Drug Use in the Workforce and Workplace”, Michael Frone explained to the Atlantic that drug testing sparked a hot new industry “comprising drug-test manufacturers, consulting and law firms specializing in the development of drug-testing policies and procedures, and laboratories that carry out the testing.”
Frone argued that there are three top reasons why the prevalence of drug testing has stayed so persistently. The first reason is that companies are mistaken about the efficiency they stand to gain. Insurance companies may also deliver discount rates to employers based on the same faulty assumptions. Finally, many companies believe that they can somehow project a more clean-cut presentation — the Brady Bunch image if you will.
Marijuana edibles: Is Canada on track to legalize them?
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In a second wave of recreational legalization in Canada, cannabis edibles will be permitted for legal sale no later than Oct. 17, 2019, Health Canada has confirmed. And the market is up for grabs.
The edibles industry is expected to be worth $4.1 billion in Canada and the United States by 2022, according to a report by a marijuana market research company called The Arcview.
As of now, in Canada, you can make cannabis-infused food at home but it is illegal for anyone to buy and or sell them to the public.
Canada’s proposed edible pot regulations have been published by Health Canada and the 60-day consultation process has come to an end. The public health agency is now reviewing the responses.
The draft regulations
Under the proposed federal rules, a single serving would be limited to 10 milligrams of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, and each serving must be individually wrapped. This is considered a low to moderate dose of THC.
This dosage limit is stricter than in Colorado, Washington or California, where multiple servings are allowed per package. So for example in a chocolate bar, each breakable square can contain 10 milligrams each for a total of 100 milligrams.
Pot meant for ingestion cannot have alcohol, have limited caffeine and come in a plain, child-resistant package. The draft regulations say the products must not be appealing to youth and the packag ing can’t advertise dessert or confectionery flavours — s o no gummies shaped like bears.
The proposed rules are an attempt to address one of the main concerns with edibles: making sure it doesn’t pose a risk to public health, especially for those who are underage.
“In other jurisdictions, which legalized marijuana just like the states in the U.S., one of the problems, [with] legalizing edibles, were kids. So kids came into the kitchen saw this wonderful nicely coloured marijuana edible and as kids do, try it out,” said Dr. Jürgen Rehm, a senior scientist at the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at CAMH.
However, some are worried the black market will continue to thrive with such strict regulations. In California, for example, which legalized recreational marijuana and edibles last year, industry experts say the illicit market continues to boom.
One major cannabis edibles manufacturer in California says it’s been difficult to navigate within the legal market because there is still so much competition in the illicit market.
“People that are heavy consumers of THC and like to ingest it, can ingest hundreds if not thousands of milligrams of THC in a day and so if they have products that are available in the illicit market that are much cheaper and have a higher potency, they’re going to tend to go towards that rather than paying significantly more for less THC, which is what they’ve used to consume,” Bryce Berryessa said, the president of La Vida Verde.
WATCH: Is marijuana good or bad for you? Everything we know about the health effects of cannabis
Berryessa says your body builds up a pretty quick tolerance when ingesting edibles. So a lot of those people who are currently used to consuming a higher amount of THC are still participating in the illegal market to get access to products with higher potencies.
Rehm who has been working on the field of mental health and cannabis consumption says it’s better to have an incremental approach when it comes to edibles.
“The problem with edible marijuana is that people are not used to it. A lot of the people once they smoke marijuana. They feel the effects pretty quickly. With edibles, the effects can be later. And people say ‘Oh, I have now done this edible marijuana and I feel nothing’ and they have more and more,” Rehm said.
To avoid putting people at risk, it would be better to start with a low dosage and once we have clear evidence the black market is still thriving, then we can re-evaluate it, he added.
“So with all the legislation, with all the upper limits of THC or other points, we have to be in a way so we can reap the benefits of legalization (i.e safer product and not lose some of the consumers to the black market). And frankly, I think there will be a lot of trial and error in the next one to two years.”
WATCH: Canada a global destination for weed tourism? Not anytime soon
Health Canada confirms that they have received 7,000 responses from Canadians, industry representatives, the provinces and the public health community on the proposed edibles draft regulations. Now, the agency is reviewing the comments and considering where adjustments can be made.
Those in the marijuana industry, however, are skeptical the government will make the edibles deadline set for themselves. When it came to recreational pot, legalization was first promised on Canada day, but the actual date wasn’t for a couple of months later.
Health Canada could not comment on when we will see the updated draft but confirmed that cannabis products will be permitted for legal sale no later than Oct. 17, 2019.
All you need to know about starting a weed business in Canada
In this post, we are listing all the requirements and information you’ll need to start a cannabis business of your own in Canada, as of tomorrow.
Before we go any further, you should know that all the information you need to start a cannabis business in Canada is laid out on the official government website. You can read it here, or just download a PDF version.
However, since their website can often get confusing and take you to pages that look sort of like other pages but don’t contain all the info, we’ll try to summarize them all in this article.
So, in essence, there are three types of businesses that you’ll be able to run as of tomorrow.
They are organized by types of licenses that you’ll be able to get:
- Cultivation license;
- Processing license;
- Federal sales license.
Alongside these three, there will also be two more that are mostly created for research and development, as well as product analysis.
Since those will be rarely applied for, I’ve decided to skip them this time.
As for the three listed above, each one serves a different purpose and they aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, for some businesses, you may need more than just one license.
Below, you can see a table that can help future business owners with organizing and fulfilling all the requirements set by the federal government.
The federal government also created a very nice diagram which will help future business owners to easily determine what type of cannabis license is most fitting for them.
Cultivation license
The first type is a cultivation license, and there are 4 classes of cultivation licenses that you can get. Each of them serves a different purpose.
Keep in mind that these licenses are business licenses, and not for growing at home. Licensed activities cannot be conducted in a dwelling-house as per federal regulations.
The four classes of the cultivation license are:
- Standard;
- Micro;
- Nursery;
- Hemp.
The standard license is the most demanding of the four. This is the type of license that future licensed producers apply for.
The requirements for applying for this license are of the highest levels because the future producer will be held responsible in front of the federal government if any malpractice happens.
Micro-cultivation licenses are better suited for those that planning on making a small-time cannabis business. They are awarded for businesses with growing space that is under 200m 2 in size.
If you were to be awarded with a micro-cultivation license you would be allowed to produce plants and seeds, but you wouldn’t be allowed to sell them if you didn’t also apply for a processing and a sales license.
The table above shows you what type of licenses you can apply for at the same time. Consider applying for several at the time in order to cut costs.
The nursery license is for those that plan on running a business that helps people grow their own cannabis plants by providing them with seeds, cuttings and such.
This license will also allow you to grow plants for your business purposes, however, the surface on which you can grow them is significantly shrunk, down to 50m 2 .
For people that are trying to maximize their growing space in a nursery, some type of vertical growing garden would be perfectly suited. It saves space and yields more cannabis per square meter.
The last type of license for cultivation is for growing hemp, but we won’t hang around this one too much. It is the least regulated type of license and the easiest to apply for.
Processing licenses
If you plan on making cannabis products, no matter if that’s extracting rosin or BHO, making cannabis cigars—you’ll need a processing license.
There are two types of cannabis processing licenses in Canada:
- Micro-processing license;
- Standard processing license.
These don’t go the other way around, so if you want one or the other you’ll have to scale up or down, depending on your needs.
The requirements for both of the processing licenses are the same, and the only difference is based on the size requirement.
Sales license
As for the sales of cannabis, the whole industry is unified in the sense of the license required to commence sales.
Seeing how most businesses that sell cannabis have cannabis on location, we won’t even mention the other type which is for businesses without cannabis on site.
The federal sales license will significantly increase the costs of acquiring a license if you plan on running a small business.
It will allow you to sell both recreational and medical cannabis, but it is also one of the harder ones to obtain due to all the security requirements.
In addition to the requirements for a micro or nursery license, you’ll have to provide proof of visual monitoring in the form of a yearly record, and some type of alarm system.
This goes for both monitoring on the perimeter and within the site.
You will also have to keep track of every person entering or exiting the area in which you are storing cannabis.
Before you start creating your business plan, check out the government website so that you know the whole picture.
So, let's define, what was the most valuable conclusion of this review: Companies are erring on the side of caution. at Are You Raking the Pot on Cannabis? in Canada
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- What Canadian employers are telling...
- Rules for flying with weed and other...
- Social Sharing
- If you are flying within Canada this up...
- Pot on a plane
- Salt, sand or seasoning
- Marijuana has been legal in Canada for...
- Article share options
- Legal producers have to 'start from...
- 'It's a little less clinical'
- Not enough to go around
- Year two and beyond
- Use Your Credit Card to Buy Weed in...
- How your credit card bills could lead...
- Marijuana has been legal in Canada for...
- Article share options
- Legal producers have to 'start from...
- 'It's a little less clinical'
- Not enough to go around
- Year two and beyond
- Canada asks: can police officers smoke...
- Weed is Legal in Canada, But Can...
- Can You Drug Test in Canada?
- Oil sands, mining and diving workers...
- Drug Testing in the United States
- Marijuana edibles: Is Canada on track...
- All you need to know about starting a...
- Cultivation license
- Processing licenses
- Sales license
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