Welcome to era of legal recreational pot

EDITORIAL: WHAT OTHERS THINK

Mission half-accomplished. Justin Trudeau’s announcement on Wednesday that recreational cannabis will be legal as of Oct. 17 represents a historic milestone for Canada and his government.

The prime minister’s decision, which followed Senate approval of Bill C-45 — the Cannabis Act — a day earlier, heralds a major social change in this country which will soon join Uruguay as the only other nation on Earth to fully permit the legal use of pot for pleasure.

This is one promise the Trudeau Liberals have kept. They deserve credit for doing so, even though the job is still only half done and the new regime will bring with it a whole new set of challenges.

When Statistics Canada says nearly half of Canadians admit that they’ve used the drug recreationally and when police almost never bother individuals who possess or use small quantities of it, the 95-year-old prohibition of cannabis no longer makes any sense.

People don’t belong in jail for using it; police shouldn’t waste their time trying to stop them. Given that this substance is arguably less harmful than alcohol, there’s an overwhelming argument that adults should be free to use it, provided they abide by certain necessary rules.

Many Canadians have believed this for a long time. Indeed, a commission created 49 years ago by the federal Liberal government led by Pierre Trudeau — father of the current prime minister — recommended ending the prohibition of “simple possession“while working to keep the drug out of young hands.

Nearly half a century later, Canada’s new law on cannabis echoes these wise sentiments. The decades of research and reasoned discussion that preceded legalization show passing this legislation was far from a rash action.

Canadians have been allowed to use cannabis for medical reasons for years. The experiences of nine American states that have legalized recreational pot show it does not threaten a civil, ordered society and that the very real problems associated with it can be managed.

But manage them, Canada must now do. And that will take even more time and effort than the considerable thought and energy that went into the new law and its tough regulations.

The two main priorities for officials should be preventing young Canadians from using cannabis — a substance that can impede the development of youthful brains — and keeping drugged drivers off our roads.

Those are formidable tasks, but there’s a lot more on government todo lists. It’s time to end the black market in cannabis, that’s a given. But getting even close to that goal will be possible only if the federal government sets the right regulations for the cannabis trade. That will be tricky.

Prices and taxes can’t be so high that they send people rushing to black market pushers. As well, the details for approving edible products will need to be finalized within a year.

The provinces will also play a major role in determining how well Canada adapts to legal recreational cannabis. They’ll control how cannabis is sold and what the legal age for buying it will be.

To be sure, there’s a lot of unfinished business to consider and even be concerned about.

But today, take a moment to reflect upon and appreciate a new era in this country. Prohibition was an abject failure. Giving a new, but conditional, freedom to adults is real progress and should be welcomed.

Trudeau was right to advocate this change. So far, he’s done an admirable job in making it happen.

An editorial from the Hamilton Spectator distributed by The Canadian Press