Canada - Senate votes to pass recreational legalization of pot

[S.J.B.]

Senate votes to pass recreational legalization of pot, amended bill now goes back to House of Commons
CBC
June 7th, 2018

Senators have voted to pass the Trudeau government's landmark legislation to lift Canada's 95-year-old prohibition on recreational cannabis by a vote of 56 to 30 with one abstention.

Despite the resolute opposition of the 32 Conservative senators, and trepidation among some independent senators, Bill C-45 now moves back to the House of Commons.

MPs there will now have to decide what to do about the the almost four dozen amendments to Bill C-45 that were made in the Senate.The government will have to decide whether to approve, reject or modify the changes before returning the bill back to the Senate for another vote.

Health Minister Petitpas Taylor has said that, once the bill is passed, provinces and territories will need two to three months to prepare before retail sales of legal cannabis are actually available.

Most of the Senate's amendments are minor, but a handful are significant. One amendment would allow provinces to prohibit home cultivation of cannabis if they so choose, rather than accept the four marijuana plants per dwelling allowed under the bill.

Read the full story here.

 

[CfZrx]

WOw, Canada is gonna do it!

 

[Static-77]

Good for canada! I don't like pot but I don't use it for pain and some people need it for that. glad the world's moving in better directions hope it really happens.

 

[S.J.B.]

Pot legalization battle brewing as government rejects key Senate change
Catherine Cullen
CBC
June 13th, 2018

The federal government is rejecting several Senate changes to its cannabis legalization bill, setting the stage for a possible showdown between the Senate and the House of Commons.

The Senate has proposed 46 amendments to The Cannabis Act, and while the government is accepting some of them, it is passing on several major ones.

According to the House's order paper, the changes the government plans to reject include:

- Affirming the provinces' right to ban home cultivation of marijuana.
- Banning branded promotional items such as T-shirts and hats that display logos of marijuana producers.
- Establishing a public registry of all cannabis companies' directors, officers, controlling parent corporations or trusts, and their directors, members and shareholders.

The House still has to debate and vote on the plan in the coming days. Then C-45 will return to the Senate, where senators will have to decide whether to give up their fight to make these changes.

While precedent suggests the Senate will go along with what the elected House of Commons decides, some senators have suggested they might not be prepared to back down this time.

Read the full story here.

This was a risky move.

 

[vancity]

my beautiful country. killin it. altho i have to say its not the most ideal situation - will majority be government run store (similar to LCBO). Also the packaging has to be very non descript. but its still great progress