Fred at The Next Level made me aware of a recent bill that just finished its committee reading in Canadian parliament. If passed, it will have dire reprecussions for the entire Canadian cannabis community.

SUMMARY
This enactment amends the Tobacco Act to provide additional protection for youth from tobacco marketing. It repeals the exception that permits tobacco advertising in publications with an adult readership of not less than 85%. It prohibits the packaging, importation for sale, distribution and sale of little cigars and blunt wraps unless they are in a package that contains at least 20 little cigars or blunt wraps. It also prohibits the manufacture and sale of cigarettes, little cigars and blunt wraps that contain the additives set out in a new schedule to that Act, as well as the packaging of those products in a manner that suggests that they contain a prohibited additive. It also prohibits the manufacture and sale of tobacco products unless all of the required information about their composition is submitted to the Minister.

Full-text here.

There are two major effects this would have if allowed to pass.

• It would prohibit the sale of individual bluntwraps in Canada, thus dealing a massive blow to the hemp retail community
• It would greatly limit the scope of "tobacco product" advertising in Canadian periodicals, with few exceptions

It's also likely this legislation could be interpreted as prohibiting the sale of flavoured rolling papers or any other "tobacco product" that contains "additives" (including sugar, which is the base for many of the gums in papers such as Juicy Jays, Brown Sugars, et cetera).  

It doesn't stop there, however.

Buried beneath these additions to the Tobacco Act, it also removes an exemption from Section 22, wherein publications with a readership above the age of 18 greater than 85% are allowed to display ads containing or referring to tobacco products. Now, only periodicals that mail directly to customer or are sold exclusively in "adult" (IE, 18+) stores will be able to display "tobacco" ads. However, note that the way in which most hemp stores define "tobacco product" means this could potentially extend to the sum of their smoking merchandise — bongs, vapourizers, the like — unless they implicitly say their smoking merchandise is not for tobacco use, but rather cannabis use. Yet, this has severe dangers as their products could be misconstrued as paraphernalia, which has far worse fines and consequences. Yet, given the success of medical necessity cases in Canada and if marketed as specialized implements for med patients, this may yet be feasible.

Regardless, it's a pretty confusing and horrifying scenario. It really affects everyone — from publishing communities to head shop owners to the activist communities they support to the dude just wanting to get his bluntwrap on. At the absolute very least, it will require massive change on behalf of both the cannabis retail and publishing communities.

I'll be working on drafting a few petitions over the next few days. In the meanwhile, I urge you all to read the text of the bill, write your Member of Parliament to respectfully express your concern (Or better yet, call them), and tell as many people as you know to do likewise. Bill C-15 is horrifying enough, let's not let them get away with this too.

-Ændrew Rininsland

Smokkr link

EDIT: Petition has been posted here.