KPU Graduate Holds City Hall on Cannabis

Small meeting in Fernie, B.C. one of many discussions on marijuana legalization

This Spring, when Canadian Health Minister Jane Philpott publicly announced that federal marijuana legislation will be introduced next year, KPU graduate Sarah-Jane Nelson decided to take action.

Having graduated from the university’s acclaimed Professional Management of Marijuana program, Nelson knows a fair deal about cannabis and how it is regulated, circulated, and used. With this knowledge, she approached the city council in her hometown of Fernie, BC to arrange an Aug. 22 meeting to discuss the impending legalization.

The feedback from that meeting was sent to the Canadian task force—a group of of eight individuals working to “seek input on the design of a new system to legalize, strictly regulate, and restrict access to marijuana”—for revision. On their website, it is written that “their advice will be considered by the Government of Canada as the new framework is developed.”

Nelson’s hope for the meeting was to build an understanding between the citizens of Fernie and the government. More specifically, she would like to abolish the stigma against marijuana use while still listening to all voices in the debate. Particularly in Fernie, she believes that the stigma is still quite prevalent today.

“Speaking from my community, I feel that the stigma associated with its use is quite strong. We don’t talk about it,” she says. “We haven’t opened a dispensary here in our town, which is not necessarily a bad thing, because they are illegal.”

For instance, the mining community in Fernie can be described as very “safety-oriented,” which means that all of its employees regularly undergo drug tests to ensure that they’re sober at work. Because of that, they would not be able to use cannabis even if there were a dispensary there.

Last fall, there was a group that attempted to open a dispensary there, but could not due to Fernie’s strict bylaws.

Regardless, getting citizens to use cannabis is not Nelson’s objective with the city council meeting. Instead, it is “bringing awareness to the city of the cannabis movement in Canada.”

On the 22nd, a group of around twelve people gathered to “focus on the task force discussion paper and answer the questions from the federal government.”

Nelson says that the two-hour meeting went very well, despite the low turnout. Of the twelve attendees, only two of them were average citizens of Fernie, which Nelson believes “maybe shows that they’re supportive of the movement going forward,” since they didn’t come as opposition.

The Mayor and Council did arrive, as did two members of the public: one “cancer-cannabis patient who came to share his story,” and a teacher concerned about how to educate his students on cannabis once it is legalized.

Nelson thinks that “the conversation needs to open up about the varying strains and potencies of medicinal cannabis,” and feels that that was accomplished—even to a small extent—with city council.

She reinforces that she wouldn’t have gone forward with it if it weren’t for KPU’s Professional Management of Marijuana program, which she signed up for purely out of curiosity. Her experience in nursing led Nelson to question the medical and therapeutic properties of cannabis—a curiosity she satisfied throughout her courses.

“The combination of what I was learning from a professional aspect in coordination with history unfolding was really exciting and it has really sparked a genuine interest in me,” she says.

“I agree with the Liberal government trying to eliminate the black market and regulating the product for the health and safety of Canadians by doing this lab testing. That’s really what I’d like to stress, from my nursing background.”