Canadians can get stoned legally

MILESTONE: TAKING TRADE AWAY FROM CRIMINALS

anada on Wednesday became the first industrialised nation to legalise recreational cannabis, but a lawful buzz will be hard to come by in its biggest cities like Toronto and Vancouver, where stores are not yet open.

The day was historic for the country as Canadian adults can now legally smoke recreational marijuana after nearly a century-long ban. But provinces and businesses have struggled to prepare and legalisation was pushed back from a July start to enable setting up distribution and sales networks.

Despite the early problems, the move is a political win for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who vowed to legalise cannabis during his 2015 election campaign. The pledge was aimed at taking profits away from organised crime and regulating the production, distribution and consumption of a product that millions of Canadians consume illegally.

“The prohibition on marijuana has not worked in this country,” Trudeau said in Ottawa. “Young Canadians have the highest usage of marijuana anywhere in the world ... criminal organisations and street gangs make over C$6 billion (R65 billion) a year on the sale of marijuana across the country ... That needs to stop.”

The federal government and many provinces have been cautious, starting with limited stores and products, including no edible cannabis products for a year, and tight control over supply.

In many parts of the country, particularly those with few stores, much of the legal sales action was online as consumers flocked to websites run by provincial governments and licensed retailers to buy legally, despite a few days’ wait for delivery and extra charges. The online stores using Shopify Inc’s e-commerce software across the country were processing more than 100 orders a minute and had millions of visitors in the first 12 hours, an external spokesperson said. Some websites ran out of popular products.

“What changes is that now I can use it openly, without people coming and challenging my right to use it,” said Peter Hasek, a music teacher who grows the plant at home and was attending an end-of-prohibition party at a Toronto coffee shop. –