Canada announces plans to legalize it

Canada announces plans to legalize marijuana by July 2018

OTTAWA — The Canadian government has introduced sweeping legislation designed to permit the recreational use of marijuana throughout the country by July 2018, fulfilling an election promise by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The bill, inspired in part by the experiences of cannabis regimes in Colorado and Washington state, goes well beyond the U.S. situation, where marijuana remains prohibited at the federal level. In Canada, the federal government will change criminal law nationally and will license growers and set product standards while leaving it up to the provinces to handle distribution and manage retail sale.

Canada will become the first large industrialized nation with a broad system permitting recreational as well as medical use of marijuana. At present, only Uruguay has a national legal regime permitting widespread use of cannabis.

“The law as it stands today has been an abject failure,” said Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, noting that Canadian teens are among the world’s biggest users of cannabis, which they now buy from illicit sources.

Goodale was speaking at a news conference attended by four Liberal Party cabinet ministers, though Trudeau himself stayed away.

Under the proposed new system, individuals will be able to possess up to 30 grams of dried or fresh cannabis for personal use — about one ounce — and can grow up to four plants at home, provided they are not more than one meter high.

The minimum age for recreational use of marijuana has been set at 18, but provinces can decide to set a higher minimum age, as some do in the case of alcohol. And the federal government plans to impose penalties of up to 14 years in prison for selling or giving away marijuana to minors.



Tourists visiting the country will be allowed to smoke pot at their pleasure but rules banning the import and export of marijuana will remain in force. In other words, people crossing from Washington state, where recreational pot is legal, into British Columbia could still be arrested if marijuana is discovered in their possession.