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In historic moment, Senate passes cannabis bill

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-in-historic-moment-canadian-parliament-approves-cannabis-bill/

DANIEL LEBLANC PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
LAURA STONE PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
MIKE HAGER
OTTAWA AND VANCOUVER
PUBLISHED 8 MINUTES AGO
UPDATED JUNE 19, 2018FOR SUBSCRIBERSDANIEL LEBLANC PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
LAURA STONE PARLIAMENTARY REPORTER
MIKE HAGER
OTTAWA AND VANCOUVER
PUBLISHED 8 MINUTES AGO
UPDATED JUNE 19, 2018 FOR SUBSCRIBERS

In a historic vote, Parliament has changed Canadian law to lift the 95-year-old prohibition on cannabis and free millions of adult Canadians to openly smoke, ingest or grow the drug without fear of a criminal record.

In the last stage of the legislative process, senators adopted the legislation in a vote of 52-29 Tuesday evening. Bill C-45’s adoption in the Senate means that a legal, multibillion-dollar industry is set to appear in Canada, which will join Uruguay as one of the only countries that offers legal access to cannabis at a national level.

Illegal since 1923, cannabis for recreational use is now expected to go on sale in early or mid-September, with cabinet setting a final date after the legislation receives royal assent. In the meantime, the Cannabis Act will allow licensed producers to start shipping dried cannabis to approved retailers across the country and to set up their mail delivery services.

Vigorously opposed by the Conservatives in the House of Commons and the Senate, the legislation will fuel a social revolution and fulfill a promise made by the Liberal Party during the 2015 federal election. The measure was supported by the NDP in the House and a majority of independents in the Senate.

The next steps for the government include releasing the regulations that will govern the cannabis trade, including approving edible products within a year, and working with Indigenous communities on where to smooth out the negative consequences of the transition to legal cannabis. In addition, the government will now start to look for a way to clear the criminal records of hundreds of thousands of Canadians who were convicted of simple possession under prohibition.

Proponents of legalization have been advocating for looser drug laws in Canada for decades, but the government opted for a strictly regulated market for cannabis. The government’s goal with legalization is to remove a profitable product from the hands of organized crime, ensure that adult Canadians benefit from a safer product and educate children and youth on the dangers of the drug.

However, critics argued the government will actually promote increased usage of the drug among all age groups, boost the number of impaired drivers on the roads and leave young consumers vulnerable to the dangers of cannabis use. Senators tried and failed to amend the legislation to give provinces the right to prohibit the home cultivation of cannabis, as done by Quebec and Manitoba.

Bill C-45 was shepherded throughout the legislative process by Liberal MP Bill Blair, the former chief of the Toronto Police Service who is the parliamentary secretary to the Ministers of Health and Justice. In a recent interview, he said Canadian law is simply catching up to the fact that thousands of Canadians ignore the Criminal Code on a daily basis.

“When a third of the population is ignoring the law, you really have to look at the law,” he said.

Bill C-45 was heavily influenced by a 2016 report by a nine-member task force chaired by former Liberal minister Anne McLellan, which consulted widely in Canada and looked at the experience of Washington State and Colorado, where cannabis use is legal.
“This is a big change for this country,” Ms. McLellan said in an interview. “The change is as much a change in thinking, in the psychology around almost 100 years of prohibition and criminalization of this plant called cannabis.”

All producers of cannabis will have to be licensed by Health Canada, while provinces will oversee the distribution of the dried cannabis and oils to the retail market. Canadian adults (the minimum age varies by province) will be able to carry up to 30 grams, with stiff new penalties for those who provide the drug to minors.

Revenues from the legal market are expected to be used, at least initially, to cover costs related to policing, enforcement, setting up public distribution networks and creating new public-awareness campaigns. Cannabis will be subject to an excise tax of $1 a gram, or 10 per cent on sales of more than $10, with Ottawa keeping 25 per cent and the rest of the money going to provinces and municipalities.