{"id":21222,"date":"2018-07-07T07:35:02","date_gmt":"2018-07-07T11:35:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=21222"},"modified":"2020-03-26T03:19:34","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T07:19:34","slug":"the-particulars-of-purchasing-and-possessing-legal-cannabis-in-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2018\/07\/07\/the-particulars-of-purchasing-and-possessing-legal-cannabis-in-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"The particulars of purchasing and possessing legal cannabis in Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>

Photo: pexels.com Free for personal and commercial use.<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s official. As of October 17, Canadians will be able to legally purchase and possess cannabis. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s Liberal government had originally set the target date as July 1, but the\u00a0Cannabis Act<\/em>\u00a0bill got slowed down at the committee level and in the Senate. It was eventually passed in late June and received Royal Assent\u2014meaning the Governor-General signed it into law on behalf of the Queen.<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

Advertising and age restrictions<\/h3>\n

Medical cannabis is already legal across Canada for patients who qualify, but the new law means everyone can buy and keep up to 30 grams. The federal law also permits people to grow up to four plants for personal use. To avoid marketing to youth, cannabis advertising will be almost prohibited, like how tobacco advertising has been virtually prohibited in Canada for the past 25 years. And just like the ban on cigarette machines, cannabis won\u2019t be sold in vending machines either.<\/p>\n

The federal law sets the legal age to buy, possess, and grow at 18. However, provincial governments have the discretion to set their own legal age, much like they already do for buying and using alcohol. In Ontario, where the province\u2019s unofficial anthem \u201cA place to stand, a place to grow,\u201d has taken on a different meaning with imminent legal pot, the age will be 19, just like it is for alcohol and cigarettes. In Quebec, the age is 18 for alcohol and tobacco, and it will be for cannabis too.<\/p>\n

Boundary challenges<\/h3>\n

The age difference could pose a challenge in places along the provincial boundary. 18-year-old freshmen at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University already cross the Ottawa River to legally drink in Gatineau, Quebec. During the first week of the fall term, rented buses even carry teenaged drinkers over the provincial boundary. The same thing could happen with 18-year-olds in other communities along the provincial border.<\/p>\n

Dr. Paul Roumeliotis is the Medical Officer of Health for the Eastern Ontario Health Unit. It\u2019s the public health department for the province\u2019s eastern counties. \u201cWe are working on a variety of educational programs\/resources now that the law has passed, and we understand the specific restrictions and regulations,\u201d said Dr. Roumeliotis. He said they are planning to work with local school boards and provide parent\/student sessions and use digital platforms. As for differing legal ages for purchase and possession between Ontario and Quebec, Dr. Roumeliotis said it is no different than what already exists for alcohol and applying those laws is for law enforcement agencies to do.<\/p>\n

Government stores and pricing<\/h3>\n

In both Ontario and Quebec, retail sales will be divisions of the government agencies that operate liquor stores. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) has created the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS). 29 locations are already planned to open once legalization takes effect in October. OCS locations are planned for Kingston and Ottawa. The Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des alcools du Qu\u00e9bec (SAQ\/Qu\u00e9bec Liquor Corporation) has established the Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Qu\u00e9b\u00e9coise du cannabis (SQDC\/Qu\u00e9bec Cannabis Corporation).<\/p>\n

Among Canadian provinces, Qu\u00e9bec is often perceived as more permissive and open than its more puritanical anglophone neighbors. However, on marijuana, it\u2019s taking a more cautious approach. The SQDC is only opening four locations to start, and none of them are in Montreal or the surrounding region. The confirmed locations for stores are in smaller cities like Drummondville, Trois Rivi\u00e8res, and L\u00e9vis. Qu\u00e9bec City, the provincial capital, is the largest city to so far be getting an SQDC store. Both the OCS and SQDC will be selling cannabis online, too. According to one mayor of a smaller city in Qu\u00e9bec, many more SQDC locations are being planned though. Mayor Carl P\u00e9loquin of Lachute, a city of 12,500 in Argenteuil County, said the SQDC plans to eventually open 350 stores across Qu\u00e9bec, and given that there are already over 400 SAQ locations, including one in Lachute, he would not be surprised if the SQDC is planning to eventually open a cannabis store there, too.<\/p>\n

The government-owned retailers will also regulate the price of pot. The price per gram is still being determined, but like with how government agencies already regulate the price of alcohol, the intent is to keep prices low enough to discourage illegal sales, but high enough to discourage dependency. Qu\u00e9bec is also planning to ban citizens from growing up to four plants of their own like the federal law permits, but the federal Department of Justice is already warning that the national law takes precedence and the plant ban could end up being struck down in court.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to predict exactly what the social and cultural effects of legal cannabis in Canada will be. In a country where reaction to almost anything controversial is usually rather subdued, whatever effects and consequences there are will likely be met with a combination of polite conversation and bureaucratic study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s official. As of October 17, Canadians will be able to legally purchase and possess […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[880,17070,17261,5638,1124],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21222"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21921,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21222\/revisions\/21921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}