Senate relents, gives cannabis bill nod

It won’t be the Canada Day celebration Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had hinted at on the campaign trail in 2015.

But after seven months of study and debate, the Senate has voted to end nearly a century of cannabis prohibition.

On Tuesday, members of the Red Chamber voted 52-29, with two abstentions, to allow Canadians to buy and consume recreational marijuana, but likely not before mid-September.

Blame the delay on provinces that said they would need two to three months after the bill was passed before they’d be ready.

Canada becomes the first industrialized country to legalize cannabis nationwide.

Conservative senators remained resolutely opposed to legalization, however.

“The impact is we’re going to have all those involved in illegal marijuana peddling right now becoming large corporations and making a lot of money and they’re going to be doing it at the expense of vulnerable people in this country,” said Tory Sen. Leo Housakos.

However, independent Sen. Tony Dean, who sponsored the bill in the upper house, said it was “progressive social policy.”

Canadians will be able to legally purchase and consume recreational marijuana by mid-September at the latest after the Senate voted Tuesday to lift almost a century-old prohibition on cannabis.

Senators voted Tuesday night to pass the government’s legislation to legalize cannabis — Bill C-45 — by 52-29. There were two abstentions.

Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor has said the provinces will need two to three months after the bill is passed before they’ll be ready to implement the new legalized cannabis regime.

“We have seen in the Senate tonight a historic vote that ends 90 years of prohibition of cannabis in this country, 90 years of needless criminalization, 90 years of a just-say-no approach to drugs that hasn’t worked,” said independent Sen. Tony Dean, who sponsored the bill in the upper house.

Canada is the first industrialized country to legalize cannabis nationwide.

“I’m proud of Canada today. This is progressive social policy,” Dean said.

However, Dean and other senators stressed that the government is taking a cautious, prudent approach to this historic change. Cannabis will be strictly regulated, with the objective of keeping it out of the hands of young people and displacing the thriving black market in cannabis controlled by organized crime.

“What the government’s approach has been is, yes, legalization but also strict control,” said Sen. Peter Harder, the government’s representative in the Senate.

“That does not in any way suggest that it’s now party time.”

Conservative senators remained resolutely opposed to legalization, however, and predicted passage of C-45 will not meet the government’s objectives.

“The impact is we’re going to have all those involved in illegal marijuana peddling right now becoming large corporations and making a lot of money and they’re going to be doing it at the expense of vulnerable people in this country,” said Conservative Sen. Leo Housakos, predicting young people will have more — not less — access.

“When you normalize the use of marijuana and you’re a young person and you had certain reservations because of the simple fact that it was illegal, there’s, I believe, a propensity to have somebody be more inclined to use it.”

Earlier Tuesday, Senators backed down on an amendment to the bill that would have recognized the authority of provincial governments to ban home cultivation of marijuana plants if they choose.

The Trudeau government rejected that amendment and senators then voted 4535 against insisting on it.

The government rejected 12 other amendments approved by the Senate. Among the other Senate amendments rejected by the government was one that would have prohibited any marijuana-branded swag, such as T-shirts and ball caps.

But senators felt most strongly about the home cultivation one.

With senators bowing to the will of the elected House of Commons on that issue, that cleared the way for them to finally pass Bill C-45.

Quebec and Manitoba have already decided to ban homegrown weed, despite the fact that the federal bill specifies that individuals may grow up to four plants per dwelling.

The Senate’s amendment was intended to avoid legal challenges of the provinces’ constitutional authority to prohibit home cultivation.

On Monday, Harder argued that senators had done all they could to study the bill thoroughly and recommend improvements. He said it was time to respect the decision of MPs, who would be accountable to their constituents in next year’s election.