Canada is on course to legalize marijuana by the summer of 2018.
Legislation introduced on Thursday by the federal Liberal government would restrict small pot purchases for personal use to adults aged 18 or older. It would also make selling weed to minors a new— and serious — criminal offence.
It’s a move that comes after over 20 years of efforts to change Canadian attitudes toward addiction and illegal substances, from a focus on law enforcement, to a focus on health.
But with an overdose crisis raging across the country, Donald MacPherson, executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition (CDPC), believes Canada could go further.
“There is a strong and persuasive case to be made for legal regulation of all drugs,” he said in a recent brief.
