Canada became the first major Western nation to legalize and regulate sale and recreational use of Marijuana on Wednesday. NAN reports
Canada Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau keeps his campaign promise by legalizing the use and controlled sale of the plant.
The change was praised by enthusiasts and investors in a growing industry that has seen Marijuana stocks soar on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges.
It was however, sharply questioned by some health professionals and opposition politicians.
“We’re not legalising cannabis because we think it’s good for our health. We’re doing it because we know it’s not good for our children,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on the eve of the reform.
“We know we need to do a better job to protect our children and to eliminate or massively reduce the profits that go to organised crime” he added.
The Cannabis Act, which fulfils a promise Trudeau made in the 2015 election campaign, makes Canada only the second nation after Uruguay to legalise the drug.
Its implementation will be scrutinised and dissected by Canadians ahead of the next election in 2019, as well as other nations that the prime minister has said may follow suit if the measure proves a success.
Trudeau himself admitted in 2013 to having smoked pot five or six times in his life, including at a dinner party with friends after being elected to parliament.
He has also said that his late brother Michel was facing marijuana possession charges for a “tiny amount” of pot before his death in an avalanche in 1998, and that this influenced his decision to propose legalising cannabis.
But Trudeau’s office told AFP he “does not plan on purchasing or consuming cannabis once it is legalised.”
In total, Statistics Canada says 5.4 million Canadians will buy cannabis from legal dispensaries in 2018 — about 15 percent of the population. Around 4.9 million already smoke.
Stores in St. John’s in the Atlantic island province of Newfoundland were due to open their doors to pot enthusiasts as of 12:01 am local time (0231 GMT) on Wednesday.
Under the new regulations, Canadians at least 18 or 19 years old (soon to be 21 in Quebec) will be allowed to buy up to 30 grams of cannabis, and grow up to four plants at home.
To meet demand, hundreds of growers have been licensed, some taking over horticulture and floriculture greenhouses. This new industry has attracted billions in funding, as well as interest from alcohol and soft drink makers such as Constellation Brands and Coca-Cola, respectively, which have expressed an interest in developing cannabis infused drinks.
Public health officials contend that smoking cannabis is as harmful as tobacco, but welcome what they call the opportunity that legalisation affords for open dialogue.
Some doctors, however, remain wary. Diane Kelsall, editor in chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, called legalisation
“a national, uncontrolled experiment in which the profits of cannabis producers and tax revenues are squarely pitched against the health of Canadians.”
Police, meanwhile, are scrambling to prepare for a predicted uptick in drug-impaired driving. It’s unclear as yet if the new framework will succeed in undercutting the black market, as prices for illicit pot have plunged in the last year to an average of Can$6.79 per gram, and most sellers had planned to charge more.
Bill Blair, a former police chief in Toronto who is Trudeau’s pointman for pot legalisation, remains optimistic. “For almost a century, criminal enterprises had complete control of this market, 100 percent of its production and distribution and they profited in the billions of dollars each year.
“I suspect they’re not going to go gently into the night,” he told AFP.
“But the fact that some individuals want to cling to a prohibition model that has led to the highest rates of cannabis use of any country in the world is a little shocking to me,” he said.
According to a recent Abacus Data poll published on Monday, 70 percent of Canadians accept or support legalisation.
