What’s Up in Weed

June 21, 2018

By: Andrea Hill

I am pleased to bring you this instalment of my blog, rounding up what’s currently happening in the cannabis industry in Canada and abroad.

BREAKING: Cannabis Act receives royal assent, becomes law, ending 95 years of cannabis prohibition

• With the Governor General giving royal assent just moments ago, Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act, is now the law of the land.  Legalization will take effect on October 17, 2018.  In the meantime, licensed producers will be permitted to start shipping dried cannabis to approved retailers across the country and to set up mail delivery.
• It is almost impossible to overstate the significance of the passage of the Cannabis Act.  Canada is the first G-7 country, and only the second nation in the world (Uruguay was the first), to pass a federal law approving the recreational use of cannabis. The news made headlines in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, the BBC, and in Ireland, New Zealand, India, and Bangkok.  Licensed producer Aphria called it a “historic milestone that will reverberate around the world.”  Behemoth licensed producer conglomerate Canopy Growth Corporation said “There are no words to describe and acknowledge this historic moment in Canada.”  The TSX, Canada’s premier stock exchange, hit an all-time high, powered in part by a jubilant rally in cannabis stocks.
• When the Cannabis Act comes into force on October 17, 2018, adults 18 or 19 years of age will be able to legally:
  • Purchase limited amounts of fresh cannabis, dried cannabis, cannabis oil, cannabis seeds, or cannabis plants from retailers authorized by the provinces and territories (in Ontario, this will be the Ontario Cannabis Store);
  • Possess up to 30 grams of dried legal cannabis or the equivalent in non-dried form in public;
  • Consume cannabis in locations authorized by local jurisdictions;
  • Grow up to four cannabis plants per household for personal use, from licensed seeds or seedlings from licensed suppliers;
  • Share up to 30 grams of dried cannabis or the equivalent with other adults; and
  • Make legal cannabis-containing products at home, such as food and drinks, so long as no dangerous organic solvents are used in the process.
• Here’s a handy summary of how each province is handling legalization.  We’ll set out the details in a later post.
• Edibles will be permitted for sale within one year following the coming into force of the Cannabis Act, and will likely be subject to heavy regulation.
• Not everything about cannabis is being legalized, however.  People must still obtain their cannabis from a legal source.  Strict criminal and monetary penalties are in place for cannabis offences involving minors and for misconduct by corporate players (such as licensed producers).  Canadians cannot take cannabis or cannabis products across federal borders.  The federal government even warned that involvement in the legal cannabis industry in Canada could result in a decision of inadmissibility in respect of a Canadian traveler by a foreign country.
• Cannabis-impaired driving, a subject addressed by Bill C-46, is also being taken very seriously.  Bill C-46 has just cleared the Senate and will be signed into law alongside the Cannabis Act today.  Bill C-46 include new “legal limit” drug offences for having specified levels of a drug in the blood within two hours of driving, and additional tools to help law enforcement detect drug-impaired driving (although a roadside cannabis screening test has yet to be approved).  A key feature of Bill C-46, initially rejected but ultimately accepted by the Senate, is its provision for mandatory alcohol screening, which would allow police to take a breath sample from drivers they pull over without having reasonable suspicion of impairment.
• The Cannabis Act reverses a domestic policy of prohibition in place since April 23, 1923.  Canada’s reasons for criminalizing the drug (14 years before the US did) may never be known for sure.  The federal Health Minister’s only recorded comment that day was “there is a new drug in the schedule,” and no debate was had on the issue.  However, the inclusion of cannabis on the schedule to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act has had an outsized social impact during the 95 years that followed.  Today, more than 600,000 Canadians are estimated to have criminal records involving cannabis offences, including 55,000 in 2016 alone, which was itself a lower annual count than in prior years.
• As early as 1973, the Le Dain Commission (formally the Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs), headed by former Supreme Court of Canada justice Gerald Le Dain, took stock of the effect of criminalization of drugs on society and recommended the repeal of the prohibition against the simple possession of cannabis.  “The main cost of the use of the criminal law against non-medical drug use,” concluded the Commission, “is that it falls with particular severity upon the young.  A high proportion of the convictions for simple possession involve persons under twenty-one years of age, and the vast majority are under twenty-five.  This is particularly true of cannabis.”
• Thirty years later, in 2002, the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs recommended the creation of an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act for the licensing of the production and sale of cannabis for both therapeutic and recreational purposes, although it specified that criminal penalties should remain for illegal trafficking and export, and all other activities falling outside the scope of the exemption scheme.  (The Senate Committee also suggested that cigarette manufacturers should be prohibited from producing and selling cannabis.)
• The Senate Committee noted that “used in moderation, cannabis in itself poses very little danger to users and to society as a whole,” and that criminalization “leads to a series of harmful consequences: users are marginalized and exposed to discrimination by the police and the criminal justice system; society sees the power and wealth of organized crime enhanced as criminals benefit from prohibition; and governments see their ability to prevent at-risk use diminished.”
• The big picture, the Senate Committee found, was that prohibition simply didn’t work: “The prohibition of cannabis does not bring about the desired reduction in cannabis consumption or problematic use.”
• In 2015, the federal Liberal Party campaigned on a promise to legalize cannabis, and was elected with a majority government.  The government’s rationale was that criminalization inhibited society’s ability to control access to cannabis and keep it out of the hands of children and youth, and contributed towards the profits of organized crime.  After a broad-ranging report by the Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation, extensive public consultations (including over 3,000 responses alone to Health Canada’s request for public comment on proposed Cannabis Act regulations), seven months of study by the Senate (during which time over 200 expert witnesses testified before five different Senate committees), and the last-minute rejection of many of the Senate’s changes by the House of Commons, Canada lands today on the first step towards a new normal in drug policy: it becomes a nation in which a war on cannabis has been transformed into a fragile armistice, and “just say no” gives way, one might say, to “just say know.”
• As Canada moves towards the new key date of October 17, 2018, the federal government will continue to work with the provinces and territories, Indigenous communities, the regulated cannabis industry and law enforcement to prepare for the implementation of the new legal framework for cannabis.  Much-anticipated final regulations to the Cannabis Act, which will set out details on the types of licences to be available, THC limits in products, and other important aspects of will be published in the coming days.  We’ll keep you posted!

What’s Up in Weed is not legal or financial advice. It is a blog by SkyLaw which is made available for informational purposes only and should not be used as a substitute for professional advice from a lawyer. This blog is subject to copyright and may not be reproduced without our permission. 

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