Military wrestling with marijuana legalization: Vance

“We are looking at it,” Vance told the committee. “I am very soon to make decisions on the specific and unique circumstances associated with military service that would preclude someone from using cannabis at a particular point in time.”

The general played down suggestions of a complete ban or prohibition on marijuana use by military personnel or even certain occupations such as pilots, adding that he plans to take a common-sense approach that “follows the law of the land.”

But the Canadian Forces’ surgeon general is looking at different initiatives to better understand the drug’s effects, including how long they last, Vance said, to ensure the military has the necessary information to make the right regulations.

“I think we’re going to have some way of assuring ourselves, based on the best science available, what other industries are doing,” he told the committee.

“So if it’s illegal to fly a plane in Canada having used cannabis within a certain period of time, it’s probably going to be illegal in the Armed Forces as well. Just for the air safety. I don’t have the answers yet, but those are the kinds of things we’re looking at.”

The issue of how to monitor and regulate marijuana use isn’t unique to the military, as police forces, commercial airlines and other industries and organizations are facing the same questions.

But despite the unanswered questions, Vance was confident about finding the right balance.

“I don’t anticipate this being a significant problem for us. We want to understand it. We want to understand better how to detect it. We want to make decisions based on evidence,” he said.

“We don’t want to start laying down rules about when you can and cannot have taken cannabis that don’t make sense in terms of your ability to recover. So we’re going to try to be smart about it.”

The Trudeau government had hoped that a legal cannabis regime would be ready by July, but it looks like Canadians will have to wait until August or September to be able to buy legal weed.

— Follow @leeberthiaume on Twitter.

Lee Berthiaume, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Military wrestling with marijuana legalization: Vance

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