By Michael Joel-Hansen

Hoback speaks out on cannabis legalization

Oct 20, 2018 | 12:00 PM

Recreational cannabis has been legal for a few days now and the opposition is raising concerns.

Prince Albert MP Randy Hoback told paNOW that he felt the government moved too fast to put the legislation through.

“They’ve brought this legalization about so fast without a lot of understanding about the consequences of this decision,” he said.

Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer made headlines this past week, when in an interview with CTV News, refused to commit to keep recreational cannabis legal. Saskatchewan Minister of Justice Don Morgan said he would have preferred if the federal government had gone with decriminalization instead of legalization. This sentiment is shared by Hoback.

“I would have preferred similar to what Don Morgan was saying [Friday]. I would have preferred to see something where we decriminalized it, made it a situation where you got a ticket and seized the product,” he said.

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Much of Hoback’s concern about the new policy comes from his worries about how legalization will effect public safety, specifically in terms of detecting people who may be driving while impaired by the drug.

“I am very concerned now, we’re in a scenario where we don’t have the proper training in the police forces, we don’t have the appropriate education tools out there for our kids, we don’t have the appropriate safe guards in place,” he said.

In terms of what changes he would like to see made, Hoback said he preferred to take a wait-and-see approach. He felt the government should have looked to make some of the changes which were proposed by the Senate when they studied the legislation.  

“If this [legalization] shows to be as bad as some people are saying, you’re going to have to make some drastic choices and do the appropriate thing to keep Canadians safe,” he said.

Hoback did admit that undoing the legalization of cannabis is not something that would be simple to do.

“It’s pretty tough, when you look at the amount of money that’s gone into the stock markets in the last year investing in different operations to grow marijuana or service the sector or industry, I am not going to lie to you, I think it’s pretty tough to put that genie back in the bottle,” he said.  

MichaelJoel.Hansen@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: mjhskcdn