KAMLOOPS — Recreational Marijuana will be legal by October 17.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement Wednesday after Bill C-45 passed the Senate vote Tuesday.
The City of Kamloops has been preparing for the upcoming legalization by amending zoning and business licensing bylaws ahead of the big day.
“Certainly, I feel prepared,” Mayor Ken Christian said. “I think the city of Kamloops is a little bit ahead of the curve in terms of some of the municipal decisions that we needed to make.”
Christian says he felt the original legalization date of July 1 was quite ambitions, and the extra time to prepare is welcome.
“So, we’re really waiting now for the provincial government to put their portal in place and then we’ll hold an opportunity for the public to weigh in on each and every store application that we get,” he said. “So that would happen probably in September, and then those licenses would be issued and ready to go as and when the private sector’s ready for them.”
The Cannabis Act includes strict rules on branding and promotion.
The sale of edibles will not immediately be legalized as the government takes time to develop regulations around these products.
Kamloops lawyer Shawn Buckley fears this will have an opposite affect than what the government intended.
“One of the main purposes of the act is basically to get rid of the illegal industry, and here we’ve got this very large, both medical industry, but it’s grey allowing for baking, the Supreme Court of Canada says you can have baking,” Buckley said. “And parliament is saying we’re going to be restricting the amount of THC allowed in any single product by regulation … So, I have some concerns. Canadians are already using these products widely, and our goal is to get rid of the illegal market, but we’re going to basically say, ‘well, a lot of the most popular products are going to remain illegal.’ That’s not good policy.”
Buckley is hopeful the legalization of recreational marijuana will mean numerous Canadians will have previous drug charges dropped.
“There are so many Canadians that have convictions for simple possession, which have pretty significant consequences, especially if they want to travel to the United States, that I definitely see an amnesty coming in, and I don’t think the government would be opposed to that, especially considering we’re now saying, ‘no, this should be legal.’”
The legislation still requires royal assent to become law.
