By Rosemary Godin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cape Breton Post Former senator Dan Christmas says that little was put in place to include the First Nations communities when cannabis was first legalized in 2018 — and that’s causing problems. “Cannabis retailers in my community (of Membertou) had no rules to follow,” he told the standing Senate committee for Indigenous People recently. “We basically had an unregulated industry at the beginning. It was because of all those issues and all of the community problems that arose, that we are doing this backwards.” COMMON RULES He said in Nova Scotia, there has been no opportunity to develop a common set of rules as has happened in other provinces such as Alberta where regulations are left up to the municipalities. “It’s like trying…







