Canadians are on a high... they flock to 111 shops now selling legalised cannabis
CANADA became the first major world economy to legalise recreational cannabis yesterday, kick-starting a nationwide experiment in drug laws and regulations despite uncertainty about the consequences.
Users celebrated the “end of prohibition” as the clock struck midnight on Tuesday and the first legal cannabis sales for non-medical purposes began.
Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, who pledged the change in his 2015 election campaign, wrote on Twitter that the policy would take “profits out of the hands of criminals” and protect children.
It could also generate hundreds of millions of extra tax revenues a year.
Yesterday, he announced moves to make it easier for people already convicted of possessing small amounts of marijuana to obtain a pardon, waiving the C$631 (£370) fee needed to apply.
Legalisation was not universally welcomed. The Canadian Medical Association Journal said the country was about to begin “a national, uncontrolled experiment in which the profits of cannabis producers and tax revenues are squarely pitched against the health of Canadians”.
The piece concluded: “If use of cannabis increases, the federal government should ... admit the legislation is flawed and amend the act. Canadians – and the world – will be watching.”
Canadian adults can now buy cannabis oil, plants and dried drugs from licensed producers and retailers. They can also carry 30g (1oz) of it in public.
At least 111 legal cannabis stores opened across the nation yesterday, starting first in Newfoundland, Canada’s most easterly province where the time turned midnight before the rest of the country.
Ian Power, who queued in St John’s, said: “I am going to frame it and hang it on my wall. I’m not even going to smoke it. I’ll just save it forever.”
Bruce Linton, the chief executive of Canopy Growth, a marijuana producer and retailer, who served Mr Power, said some people were in tears.
“The last time Canada was this far ahead in anything, Alexander Graham Bell made a phone call,” he said, referring to the telephone inventor who lived in the country.
One concern is whether the police are prepared for a spike in drug-driving. There are doubts about the reliability of screening technology and fears cases could clog up the courts.
Another is at the Us-canadian border. US customs told journalists that marijuana remains illegal under US federal law and those caught at the border with the drug are subject to arrest.