Canada premier spurs on pot bill

Recreational-use measure debated

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pressing ahead with a goal of legalizing recreational marijuana in Canada within months, as senators push for changes and a delay of as much as a year.

The government’s pot measure is working its way through the Senate, where three lawmaker reports this week called for changes or a delay. While the government didn’t welcome or rule out an extension, there’s little sign it will pump the brakes. Trudeau says the push will continue as scheduled, and a spokesman said the health minister looks forward to a final Senate vote June 7.

“We are going to bring in legalization as we’ve committed to this summer, on schedule,” Trudeau said Thursday in Ottawa, in comments echoing, but more specific than, those made a day earlier. “Make no mistake — this is a public health and public safety issue that we committed to in the election campaign.”

The comments come as Canada’s Senate — which has become more unpredictable but is the less-influential of the two federal chambers — reviews the law ahead of a vote expected next month, one that would tee up the legal market’s opening for late summer or early fall. The senator sponsoring the bill said there’s room for the government to address some of the concerns without delaying it.

“If it needs more time, it will get more time. Do I think it needs more time? No, I don’t,” Sen. Tony Dean said in a telephone interview. Pushing things a couple of weeks is possible; months is unlikely, he said. “Right now, everybody’s getting ready for September.”

Several Senate committees studying the bill are making nonbinding recommendations. One report by the Committee on Aboriginal Peoples urged pot legalization to be pushed back up to a year, citing a lack of consultation with Canada’s indigenous community.

Another unanimously called for a limit on the amount of dried cannabis a person can carry, while the committee’s majority called for a ban altogether on home cultivation. The nation’s real estate broker lobbying group said the law should be delayed until building codes are changed to account for home growers.

A third committee called on the government to strike a deal with the U.S. on how American border guards will treat pot users. Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland told senators Tuesday that U.S. officials have indicated that legal weed won’t cause Canadians to be held up at the border.