Canada Legalises Cannabis 2018 

This year on October 17th, 2018, Canada became the second country in the world to Legalise Cannabis for sale and recreational purposes. The Canadian minister Justin Trudeau started the campaign in 2015 and he made a promise to Canada that Marijuana would be legal to buy and consume in Canada. It was his way and the government’s way of taking cannabis out of the hands of the youth and push out organised crime in the industry. In recent statistics, it has shown that 5.4 million Canadian people will buy marijuana in 2018 from dispensaries that are legal, which is about 15% of the population. It is now legal to buy cannabis in stores and online. For medicinal purposes only, marijuana became legal in Canada in 2001. From next year onwards, edibles will be now legal to buy and sell. Due to the demand for marijuana, hundreds of people now have licenses to sell marijuana and some have taken over floriculture and horticulture greenhouses. With the estimated sales of cannabis, it is estimated to provide the government with a 400 million tax revenue windfall and it will also boost the economic growth by up to 1.1 billion. Canadian prohibition has ended and Canada has made history!

The Current Legal Policy 

There are several aspects of cannabis that are still illegal:

1. Canadians can hold up to 30 grams (one ounce) of legal cannabis in public.
2. Quebec and Alberta have set the minimum age of purchase to 18, while the rest have limited age to 19.
3. It is now legal to make your own food and drink products at your own residence with the use of cannabis, provided organic solvents are not used.
4. You can share up to 30 grams (one ounce) of cannabis with other adults.
5. Cannabis can be purchased from provincially licensed stores.
6. 4 cannabis plants can be grown in the home per residence for personal use.

There was also a new drug-impaired driving legislation law passed by the government which includes jail time and a fine. A sample test is taken from saliva which is then tested for THC, the illicit compound found in Cannabis.

Canada’s Previous Laws on Cannabis 

In past centuries, it was against the law to use Cannabis. It was shaped as a banned substance, whether you used cannabis for medicinal purpose or recreational. It was officially banned from the country in 1923 and even then a lot of people had never heard or seen cannabis before. In the 1960s, cannabis was rarely seen or known about in the mainstream population. In those years, it became quite popular and the use of cannabis increased among the youth of higher means, the well-educated, and with social use. In the year 2001, it became legal to use cannabis for medicinal purposes.