Celebrating Canada’s bold dope reform

And so, here we go. The recreational use of cannabis is now legal in Canada, making ours only the second country, after tiny Uruguay, to take a leap that is both epic and overblown. Overblown because, in one critical way, nothing will change. According to Statistics Canada, 4.9 million of us consumed $5.7 billion worth of cannabis in various forms, both medical and non-medical, in 2017. Canadians don’t need a change in the law to be encouraged to use pot.

But within that shift in legality lie a number of important consequences for Canada. The most gratifying will be the end of the tens of thousands of arrests for possession of small amounts of cannabis that people are subjected to every year. Those arrests disproportionately targeted black and indigenous Canadians. It is long past due that a regime that punished vulnerable people for so small a crime, while millions of others brazenly used cannabis with impunity, is finally off the books.

There will be other consequences. By becoming the first major Western country to legalise cannabis and allow its undocumented use, Canada has positioned itself to be the leader in an industry that seems destined to grow internationally. But the essence of the moment is that a government has acknowledged the scope of cannabis use by its citizens, and the reality of its limited health risks, and pushed through a bold reform.