Now that the third anniversary of legalization has arrived, the legal review of the Cannabis Act begins. “Legalization is not an on-off switch that happened,” said Dr. Daniel Myran, Ottawa`s public health physician. “The retail market has matured over time, but at the same time, a lot of the data we have about what happens after legalization comes from a very early era.” That promise was largely kept, with legalization essentially ending what Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, a sociology professor at the University of Toronto who studies race and policing in Canada, called “highly racialized” arrests for marijuana possession. “African Canadians and other racialized Canadians who have been negatively impacted by cannabis prohibition must have the opportunity to benefit from the fruits of legalization,” said Professor Owusu-Bempah. “We`ve had this situation where Black people and Indigenous peoples have been criminalized too much. Now they are excluded from a multi-billion dollar industry. “From a criminologist`s perspective, legalization has been successful in reducing the criminalization of people for cannabis-related offences,” said Owusu-Bempah, who is also an advisor to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and research director for Cannabis Amnesty. The new law almost completely eliminated the possession charge. In 2018, police recorded 26,402 cases of possession until legalization went into effect in mid-October. In 2019, that number dropped to 46, according to Statistics Canada. (Possession of more than 30 grams of marijuana remains illegal.) Whatever the actual reasons, the official goals of legalization are based on erroneous premises. Let us look at the government`s two demands.
Callaghan says his ongoing research suggests that youth visits to emergency rooms for poisoning or excessive marijuana use could be “significantly” on the rise. That reflects U.S. trends in states that have legalized marijuana, he said. But investors saw huge business opportunities when a “green rush” swept the Toronto Stock Exchange and legal players invested millions of dollars in oversized greenhouses. “Change has begun, and maybe about half of the market has moved from illegal sources to legal retail sources,” said David Hammond, a professor of public health at the University of Waterloo in Ontario who is leading a multi-year study on cannabis use. And many of those who have criminal records of crimes committed before legalization are people of color, he said, and he wants more criminal records expunged. What he has noticed so far, however, is that many of the concerns surrounding cannabis legalization — including the potential increase in cannabis-induced psychosis and schizophrenia, as well as drug-impaired driving — have not materialized. Two years after legalization, customers still come to these stores in Alderville`s Indigenous community — even though the vendors operate outside the new system put in place to regulate legal sales. The legalization of cannabis also gives us the opportunity to have honest and thoughtful discussions about drug use with our families and communities. When it comes to complex issues like cannabis policy, no one has all the answers.
But as parishioners, we all have thoughts, feelings, and experiences about drugs and drug use that we can share with each other. When we engage together to explore and share ideas, we can understand how to manage use as individuals and communities in ways that maximize benefits and minimize harm. The number of human trafficking crimes in Washington State has been significantly reduced. But high taxes on production and retail price premiums have created the conditions for a thriving illicit cannabis market to continue. In addition to a fairer legal system, the government has promised that legalization would remove the sale of marijuana from the black market, parts of which are dominated by organized crime. But I have some doubts about these objectives of the government. Research shows that the illicit cannabis market actually consists primarily of sellers and suppliers who have no connection to organized crime. And around the world, studies have shown that most young people get their drugs through social media rather than directly from major suppliers. This means, for example, that an adult 18 years of age or older can legally possess 150 grams of fresh cannabis. Canada became the first developed country to legalize recreational marijuana use in October 2018.
Since then, it has also passed legislation allowing citizens with criminal records for marijuana possession to be pardoned quickly and free of charge. Russell Callaghan, a professor in the Northern Medical Program at the University of Northern British Columbia at the University of Northern British Columbia, is studying the impact of legalization on a number of public health indicators. He says research in this area is still in its infancy. But with their legal status still unclear, the threat of closure hangs over Green Mile stores. “The problem this creates is that we have a lot of data on the early stages after legalization, just when there was essentially no legal market,” he said. According to Statistics Canada, nearly 48,000 cannabis-related offences were reported to police in 2017. The majority of these offences (80%) were possession offences. A criminal record stemming from a cannabis offence, even a charge of minor possession, can have a serious and permanent impact on the accused. By allowing the production and possession of legal cannabis for adults, the legislation helps keep Canadians who use cannabis out of the criminal justice system, thereby reducing the burden on the courts.
Despite the many poor ratings, Smitherman does not call the entire implementation of cannabis legalization a failure. Some experts warn that it may be too early to call marijuana legalization a general success. The review will assess the impact of the law on young Canadians and progress toward the legislature`s goal of giving adults access to regulated, low-risk and legal cannabis products, the government said in a statement. “To be honest, it`s just too early,” she said of the public health impact assessment of legal marijuana. Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto, says the impact of cannabis legalization in this area is significant. One study found that market prices and illegal supply chains are still favoured, especially by ethnic minority youth. Data is still limited and the COVID-19 pandemic has overlapped most of the time marijuana was legal. The city once had more pot shops than Starbucks, with more than 100 at its peak. There are now about 19 unlicensed stores as well as 34 legal operators, figures that largely reflect the situation across Canada: sales outside the legal system are declining but have not disappeared.
In a legalization report released this week, C3 gives governments a B grade when it comes to keeping cannabis out of the hands of young people and protecting public health — but that`s as high as the grades. The legalization of cannabis offers the opportunity to introduce regulations to minimize potential harm. The danger of buying and using illicit drugs is that we can never know for sure exactly what they contain. Cannabis has been legal in Canada since October 17, 2018. Adults (over the age of 19 in British Columbia) are now allowed to possess up to 30 grams of cannabis in public. Cannabis is regulated by the Province of British Columbia and sold through the Liquor Distribution Branch. The quality of cannabis is tested. Trudeau`s promise to legalize marijuana was not universally welcomed by Canadians, including some members of his Liberal Party, who feared it would encourage use, especially among teenagers. As more U.S. countries legalize marijuana, with voters in New Jersey, South Dakota, Montana and Arizona last November supporting recreational use and joining a dozen other states, here`s a look at the Canadian experience two years after its national experience.
The goal of keeping legal cannabis out of the hands of youth continues to be thwarted by social supply networks. An August report by the Ontario Human Rights Commission showed how closely cannabis-related arrests were linked to racist cannabis-related arrests prior to legalization: An analysis of police data found that while Black people made up 8.8 per cent of Toronto`s population, they faced 34 per cent of marijuana possession charges between 2013 and 2017. But the new system has been criticized for keeping these indigenous operations in a grey market legal limbo, despite promises that indigenous peoples would be consulted and included in the new system. But other important promises and hopes that came with the fact that Canada was the first industrialized country to legalize marijuana have still not been kept. In its latest survey, released just over a year ago, Statistics Canada, the census agency, found that 28 per cent of Canadians buy marijuana exclusively from legal stores and websites, while 58 per cent use a mix of legal and illegal sources.