New Bill Will Make Canada the Second Country in the World to Legalize Marijuana Jacob Sullum - Reason | |
go to original April 24, 2017 |
Trudeau Says Canada Is Legalizing Pot to Protect Kids (Bloomberg Politics)
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau kept a campaign promise by introducing a bill that will make Canada the second country in the world (after Uruguay) to legalize marijuana for recreational use. The government expects legal sales to begin by the middle of next year.
Trudeau's bill, which will be managed by Liberal M.P. Bill Blair, a former Toronto police chief, closely tracks the recommendations of a government-appointed task force that delivered its report in December. The national government, which already licenses more than 40 producers of medical marijuana, will regulate cannabis growers, while provincial governments will decide the details of distribution. Advertising and marketing will be stricly regulated at the national level, as with tobacco.
Trudeau's bill sets a minimum purchase age of 18, but provincial governments can set a higher age if they choose. Every U.S. state with legal marijuana has picked 21 as the cutoff, tracking the drinking age, which in Canada is 18 or 19, depending on the province. Adults, however defined, will be allowed to carry up to 30 grams (about an ounce) at a time and grow up to four plants per household.
"The production of cannabis outside the regulated regime remains a serious criminal offense," Blair said. "Trafficking of cannabis outside the regulated distribution system... will remain a serious criminal offense. And this legislation... creates a new offense, a very serious offense, with a penalty of up to 14 years, for trafficking cannabis to a youth." Blair argued that a legal distribution system in which retailers are held accountable for verifying that their customers are adults will be more successful than the current policy of uniform prohibition at preventing sales to minors. "Today the decision to sell or not to sell to that child is often being made by a gangster in a stairwell," he observed. Read the rest at Reason
Related: Marijuana Could Soon be Regulated Like Alcohol in All 50 US States (Newsweek)
Related: Who Just Made the Case for Drug Legalization? Drug-Warrior in Chief Jeff Sessions, That’s Who (Salon)
Related: Mexico, Columbia and the Anti-Drug Craze of the Trump Administration (Mexico Voices)
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