At long last, Canadians have gotten a look at the federal bill that will make recreational marijuana use and possession legal, come July 1, 2018.
The new legislation takes a middle-of-the-road approach, making access to marijuana safer and easier for adults, and stepping up penalties for those caught selling to minors. So, all in all, a fairly textbook Liberal bill.
Critics point out, however, those selling to minors are also likely to be minors themselves and not the criminal kingpins the legislation is meant to cut out of the drug trade entirely.
Civil libertarians are also warning that the provisions allowing for mandatory roadside drug tests without reasonable suspicion by police are likely setting up Justin Trudeau’s government on a collision with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms his father wrote. The Supreme Court of Canada was all too happy to quash a number of tough-on-crime measures enacted by the previous Conservative government.
And the bill doesn’t do anything for the hundreds or maybe thousands of Canadians who may find themselves answering to a judge about simple pot possession in the next year or so.
We look forward to a robust and thoughtful debate on how the provinces are going to deal with the challenge of becoming government-sanctioned weed dealers.
In any case, we’re glad to see the bill tabled. It represents a departure from 85 years of a war on drugs that wasn’t successful in anything but bunging up the criminal justice system and making gangs rich and violent. It’s high time we took a different approach.
