CannCentral
  • Home
  • Business
    Saliva tests for cannabis won’t provide an accurate depiction of impaired driving

    Saliva tests for cannabis won’t provide an accurate depiction of impaired driving

    CannaReps provides a modern approach to cannabis education

    CannaReps provides a modern approach to cannabis education

    Ryan Reynolds producing Stoned Alone comedy based on Home Alone movies

    Ryan Reynolds producing Stoned Alone comedy based on Home Alone movies

    Strains with Sam: U.K. Cheese

    Strains with Sam: U.K. Cheese

  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • News
No Result
View All Result
CannCentral
  • Home
  • Business
    Saliva tests for cannabis won’t provide an accurate depiction of impaired driving

    Saliva tests for cannabis won’t provide an accurate depiction of impaired driving

    CannaReps provides a modern approach to cannabis education

    CannaReps provides a modern approach to cannabis education

    Ryan Reynolds producing Stoned Alone comedy based on Home Alone movies

    Ryan Reynolds producing Stoned Alone comedy based on Home Alone movies

    Strains with Sam: U.K. Cheese

    Strains with Sam: U.K. Cheese

  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • News
No Result
View All Result
CannCentral
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Jamie Shaw: Caveat emptor—consumer rights and cannabis legalization

Kirk Smol by Kirk Smol
November 19, 2024
in News
0 0
0
Jamie Shaw: Caveat emptor—consumer rights and cannabis legalization

By Jamie Shaw

In ancient Mesopotamia, the first Babylonian king, Hammurabi, created a code of laws—one of the first instances in history to include rules ensuring consumer protection. For example, if an unsafe structure collapsed, it was the builder who was held accountable for the damage.

Unfortunately for consumers, this ancient concept was soon replaced by the Roman ideal of “caveat emptor” or “let the buyer beware”, which placed the responsibility on consumers to protect themselves. It would become the main doctrine dictating consumer rights, or lack thereof, going forward.

It wasn’t until the rapid rise of consumerism following the Second World War that North America saw a revolution in thinking around consumer issues. As a result, in 1962, U.S. president John F. Kennedy told Congress a new movement was needed. This resulted in the first Consumer Protection Act of the modern era.

Related Post

CannaReps provides a modern approach to cannabis education

CannaReps provides a modern approach to cannabis education

November 19, 2024
Saliva tests for cannabis won’t provide an accurate depiction of impaired driving

Saliva tests for cannabis won’t provide an accurate depiction of impaired driving

November 19, 2024

Ryan Reynolds producing Stoned Alone comedy based on Home Alone movies

November 19, 2024

Strains with Sam: U.K. Cheese

November 19, 2024

The four basic principles governing consumer law would be founded, and are still relied upon around the world: the right to safety, the right to information, the right to choose, and the right to be heard.

As the world modernized, the debate around consumer rights became an ever-expanding area in both business and personal litigation and regulation, and by the 1980s, four more basic principles would be added. These principles were: the right to basic needs, the right to redress, the right to consumer education, and the right to a healthy environment.

One would think that rules regarding any newly legal product in the industrialized world would be based more or less around these fundamental principles, yet that doesn’t seem to be the case when it comes to cannabis legalization in Canada.

Make no mistake, the consumers most left behind as a result of this lapse are the patients. From limited access to strain selection as producers meet export deals and stockpile cannabis for the province’s rollout of legal sales, to industry organizations rushing to drop ‘medical’ from their name, most patient organizations have been effectively silenced.

Not only is medical cannabis still taxed, there will be an additional excise tax added now that Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act, has passed. For now, the Liberal government’s promise to revisit the medical program in five years has been enough to shelf their plight, leaving these patients effectively in the dark for the next half-decade.

Recreational consumers shouldn’t expect much better treatment, either. Perhaps it is the rampant equation of cannabis with alcohol and tobacco that has caused this oversight. Yes, cannabis can be intoxicating like alcohol, and, yes, it can be smoked like cigarettes, but this is where the similarities end. Further, with alcohol and tobacco we have instilled the idea that by choosing consumption of these substances you somehow waive your consumer rights.

While governments struggle to reduce smoking rates, going so far to pay for nicotine patches, they have failed to apply the basic principles of consumer rights to this product. At no point have they even suggested companies stop adding known toxic chemicals to tobacco.

This may seem very far from where we are on cannabis, but is it really? Despite Health Canada’s ‘strictly regulated’ approach—compounded with the litany of shots taken at the ‘illicit’ market—when licensed producers were caught selling cannabis with traces of banned pesticide on it, they didn’t even receive a slap on the wrist. And that’s when the cannabis was only going to medical patients.

The idea that we are approaching this from a public health perspective has become increasingly more laughable as the regulation debate unfolds. Our governments are so afraid of promoting cannabis that instead we will prevent sales and production staff from actually sharing knowledge that could reduce or entirely prevent some risks. In truth, what we are doing is setting up some consumers for an incredibly bad experience.

Calling something ‘recreational’ does not change its effects, and it certainly does not change the nature of substance. If I have an allergy to peanuts, you can call them “recreational peanuts” all you want. They still have the potential to kill me and we aren’t even talking about something as deadly as peanuts.

While cannabis is a safer substance (simply because there have been actual deaths associated with peanuts), if I have anxiety or am prone to paranoia, the likelihood that I will have an adverse reaction to a sativa is much higher. If I have a family history of schizophrenia, again, a sativa is more likely to set it off. The fact that “sativa” and “indica” aren’t even actually correct doesn’t even matter, it still gives consumers a better guideline currently than simply listing two of the cannabinoids (tetrahydrocannabinol and cannabidiol)—which is what current labeling guidelines require.

Understanding that, we currently don’t have the research to understand how all the cannabinoids and terpenes work together—we haven’t even named them all yet. It’s looking like when this research does finally catch up, it likely still won’t be made available to the general public on things like packaging and advertising materials.

It seems we will equate cannabis with a medicine when it comes to limiting access and promotion, but we are quick to tax it while refusing to call it a medicine. We will equate cannabis with alcohol and tobacco when it comes to creating barriers to access, but we will also refuse to allow the equal ease of access. We will allow legal sales of cannabis, but we will ignore the consumers right to safety, their right to information, their right to choose, and their right to education. In this sense, we really have returned to a “buyer beware” approach to cannabis consumption in the near-legal landscape—little to no information with high risk.

And in the words of civil rights activist Cesar Chavez: “Who gets the risks? The risks are given to the consumer…”

Kirk Smol

Kirk Smol

Kirk's journey through the digital realm began with lines of code and algorithms dancing in his dreams. Armed with a keyboard and an insatiable curiosity, he embarked on the path of software engineering. However, fate had a smoky twist in store for him. As the ones and zeros swirled around him, Kirk had an epiphany – he realized that he was more interested in the highs and lows of the cannabis industry than debugging lines of code. With a leap of faith that would make a bungee jumper blush, he bid farewell to the world of semicolons and database queries and embraced the intoxicating allure of cannabis journalism. Now, Kirk finds himself navigating a different kind of network, one that's all about buds, trichomes, and terpenes. Armed with a pen that's mightier than a vaporizer and a keen eye for detail, he's on a mission to unravel the mysteries of the green world.

Related Posts

CannaReps provides a modern approach to cannabis education
News

CannaReps provides a modern approach to cannabis education

by Kirk Smol
November 19, 2024
Saliva tests for cannabis won’t provide an accurate depiction of impaired driving
News

Saliva tests for cannabis won’t provide an accurate depiction of impaired driving

by Estella Muir
November 19, 2024
Ryan Reynolds producing Stoned Alone comedy based on Home Alone movies
News

Ryan Reynolds producing Stoned Alone comedy based on Home Alone movies

by Kirk Smol
November 19, 2024
Next Post
Dana Larsen: Media reports 8,851 Canadians killed by cannabis

Dana Larsen: Media reports 8,851 Canadians killed by cannabis

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

It’s not a heart attack: chest pain from smoking weed

It’s not a heart attack: chest pain from smoking weed

November 11, 2024
What Is The Freeze Pipe & How You Should Use It

What Is The Freeze Pipe & How You Should Use It

November 11, 2024
How To Roll That Perfect Swisher – A Detailed Guide

How To Roll That Perfect Swisher – A Detailed Guide

November 11, 2024
Whether or not you need a special lighter for firing up a joint is debatable, but having a good lighter in your arsenal is never a bad thing. Photo by Paul Bradbury / iStock /Getty Images Plu

Lighters for cannabis: here are five of the best

November 11, 2024
CannaReps provides a modern approach to cannabis education

CannaReps provides a modern approach to cannabis education

November 19, 2024
Saliva tests for cannabis won’t provide an accurate depiction of impaired driving

Saliva tests for cannabis won’t provide an accurate depiction of impaired driving

November 19, 2024
Ryan Reynolds producing Stoned Alone comedy based on Home Alone movies

Ryan Reynolds producing Stoned Alone comedy based on Home Alone movies

November 19, 2024
Strains with Sam: U.K. Cheese

Strains with Sam: U.K. Cheese

November 19, 2024
CannСentral Magazine

Recent Posts

  • CannaReps provides a modern approach to cannabis education
  • Saliva tests for cannabis won’t provide an accurate depiction of impaired driving
  • Ryan Reynolds producing Stoned Alone comedy based on Home Alone movies

Categories

  • Business
  • Culture
  • Lifestyle
  • News

© 2023 CannCentral

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Landing Page
  • Buy JNews
  • Support Forum
  • Pre-sale Question
  • Contact Us

© 2023 CannCentral

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In