QPL Articles
Canadian Medical Association Journal condemns Liberals’ marijuana legalization bill
By Jonathan Ablett | July 3, 2017
The Liberals were elected in the fall of 2015 on a platform of legalizing recreational marijuana. A task force set up to look at the details of legalization published its report last November. In April, the Liberals unveiled a legislative package for legalization, and promised that a legal distribution system will be up and running by the end of June 2018.
An editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal has opined that the federal Liberals’ cannabis legislation should not be passed in its current form.
The journal stated that some of the proposed bill’s provisions are at odds with the bill’s purpose, which is to protect public health and safety, particularly that of Canada’s youth.
Diane Kelsall, the journal’s editor-in-chief, argues that the national minimum age of 18 in the legislation implies that it’s a good idea to consume pot at that age. Young adults’ brains are said to be developing until the age of 25 and some studies seem to show that marijuana use harms the developing brains.
Kelsall also takes issue with the bill’s proposal to allow limited home grows (no more than four plants per household, not more than a metre tall.) as nobody’s going to be going into people’s houses and measuring 100 centimetres.
The editorial also questions the government’s decision not to try to control the potency of recreational marijuana under legalization, and to leave the details of distribution up to the provinces.
See more at: globalnews.ca/