April 27, 2018
Winnipeg, MB – The University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) Board of Directors, formerly known as UMSU Council, passed a motion defining its stance on cannabis use on April 26, 2018. With the impending legalization of cannabis in Canada scheduled for Summer 2018, UMSU amended its existing Position Statement Book to include an education and safety focused stance on cannabis. UMSU is eager to work with the University to ensure any corresponding campus rules and regulations that are established will correlate with these themes.
“We are pleased to end our term with this progressive step forward,” says Tanjit Nagra, UMSU President. “Since marijuana is set to be legalized this summer, we want to ensure our incoming Executives and Board of Directors will have some guidance when discussing harm reduction strategies with the University.”
Taking this progressive step toward a realistic drug strategy and creating easily accessible educational resources for students will help eliminate misconceptions about cannabis and subsequently promote safe usage. An important aspect of this is proper education about impaired driving. In 2017, the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction reported that cannabis is the leading source of impaired driving in drivers aged 18-24, even while criminalized.
As cannabis-related awareness and initiatives evolve over time, this stance will help guide UMSU’s focus on advocating that any proposed regulations or legislation will centre around harm reduction and education.
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The University of Manitoba Students’ Union is the official representative of the over 25,000 undergraduate students at the University of Manitoba.
For media information, please contact:
Tanjit Nagra
President
University of Manitoba Students’ Union
Phone: 204-474-6519
Email: pres@umsu.ca