Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said marijuana will become fully legalized in Canada on October 17, 2018.
Trudeau spoke to journalists on Wednesday, after the Senate permitted Canada to become the first country in the G7 to fully legalise cannabis.
“Obviously the current approach – the current prohibition of marijuana – has not worked to protect our kids, to keep the money out of the pockets of organised crime and that’s why we’re bringing in a new legalised framework around marijuana”, Guardan quoted him as saying.
His government introduced legislation last year in a bid to make Canada the second country in the world to legalise cannabis, after Uruguay. Medical marijuana is already legal in Canada.
PM Trudeau expected that the end of 95 years of prohibition would immediately begin to curtail the estimated C$6bn ($4.5bn) in profits pouring into the black market.
“And over the following months, and indeed years, we will almost completely replace the organised crime market on that,” he said.
“One of the things that we heard very clearly from the provinces is that they need a certain amount of time to get their bricks-and-mortar stores and their online sales ready.
“Producers need time to be able to actually prepare for a regimented and successful implementation of the regime … This is something that we want to get right.”
On pardons for the hundreds of thousands of Canadians with prior marijuana convictions, Trudeau said it would be “illogical” to consider the issue before the new law comes into effect.
“We’ve said that we will look at next steps once the coming-into-force happens but between now and then the current regime stays.”
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