Banned: Canadian Edition
The Cannabis Act passed on October 17th, 2018.
Cannabis Criminalization and Legalization
All eyes have been on Canada for quite some time. Canada is the leader in criminalization and legalization. In 2005, we were the first country outside of Europe and the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex marriages worldwide. In 2018, we criminalized the use of microbeads and Trans fats in products sold in Canada, and legalized the use and possession of recreational cannabis nationwide.
As innovators, we are trusted to make the right decisions for the people of our country and for the rest of the world to follow suit. However, when it came to the criminalization of cannabis that was not the case. In 1923, cannabis was lumped in with many other drugs within the Narcotics and Opium Act, where we now realize it should never have been. Cannabis has many things to offer the world, if only we let it.
Cannabis, also known as marijuana and many other names, is derived from the cannabis plant. It grows naturally in various tropical and temperate areas around the world but it can flourish in almost any climate. It has been increasingly grown indoors through hydroponic technology, which with Canada’s harsh winters allows for year-round growth.
The effects of cannabis are caused by the chemical compounds in the plant called cannabinoids. Cannabinoids are the active ingredients in medical cannabis that give cannabis its medicinal and therapeutic benefits. The cannabinoids attach to the cannabinoid receptors that exist within the human body. There are approximately five hundred diverse cannabinoids. In fact, the many variants of cannabinoids have numerous effects and provide relief for various ailments.
The most common cannabinoids is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). It is responsible for the “high” that individuals experience. It has both therapeutic and harmful effects. THC can give you a relaxed sense of well-being, heighten your senses, change your perception of time, make you anxious, afraid or panicked, and make you hallucinate.
The second most common is Cannabidiol (CBD). It is not psychoactive and is being studied for use in medical treatments, such as relieving pain, anxiety and other chronic conditions.
With a range of harmless and harmful effects, cannabis has earned a bad reputation. Though, with proper research, such as experimentation with supervision and responsible use, many people can find their limits and benefit from cannabis within those limits. There are far more man-made pharmaceuticals with longer, more deadly lists of side effects that people take every day for the same illnesses that cannabis can alleviate.
Aside from marijuana, the cannabis plant can also produce hemp. Hemp is grown with a margin of 0.3% or lower THC so it provides no psychoactive effects. Regardless of this, hemp was associated with marijuana, due to it being from the same plant, and was banned along with it. Even though, hemp is not to be smoked. Its uses, as it is almost all CBD, range from food to fabrics to building materials. Hemp is a renewable natural resource than can be used as a safer alternative to many non-renewable natural and manufactured resources.
Legalization Trip Ups under Ford’s Government
As the second country to legalize cannabis nationwide, we had the chance to learn from Uruguay’s mistakes. Uruguay’s cannabis registration required people’s privacy to be violated. The items required to register were thumbprints, photo identification, and addresses. To top it off, only designated pharmacies were able to supply the product and were extremely limited to how much they allow people to purchase daily and monthly. The daily amount being up to two joints.
In Canada, each of the provinces, territories, and Indigenous communities have their own regulations so what may be legal in one area, may not be in another. Municipalities even have the opportunity to pass bylaws to regulate cannabis locally.
Out of all the provinces, territories and Indigenous communities, Ontario has been the laughing stock of the country with how badly legalization has been handled. Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario, made changes to the province’s regulations up to a month before legalization occurred. His alterations included pulling out of public-sector retail sales and instead running a government-controlled online cannabis store, as well as delaying private-sector models until April 2019.
Due to these deviations, the province was not properly prepared for legalization. The Ontario Cannabis Store had quite the rocky start. Problems ranged from the store running out of product, delayed delivery to customers, and when people did receive their orders, they reported finding mould and bugs in the product. Aside from that, customers also complained that there was far too much packaging for what they had purchased, and that since it was mostly plastic, it was not eco-friendly.
Bloomberg News. (2018, August 14). Ontario delays private, bricks-and-mortar cannabis stores to April 2019 — BNN Bloomberg. Retrieved November 29, 2018, from https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/ontario-delays-private-bricks-and-mortar-cannabis-stores-to-april-2019-1.1122919
Campbell, M. (2017, March 18). Legalizing weed: How Uruguay tripped up. Retrieved November 29, 2018, from https://www.macleans.ca/politics/legalizing-weed-how-uruguay-tripped-up/
Connolly, A. (2018, October 31). Doug Ford’s decision to delay pot stores contributing to ‘rocky’ cannabis rollout: Industry official. Retrieved November 29, 2018, from https://globalnews.ca/news/4612025/ontario-cannabis-legalization-bill-blair-jordan-sinclair/
DeClerq, K. (2018, November 23). Cannabis producer asks customers to return brand of product after mould complaints. Retrieved November 29, 2018, from https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/cannabis-producer-asks-customers-to-return-brand-of-product-after-mould-complaints-1.4188948
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Health Canada. (2018, October 17). Producing and Selling Hemp. Retrieved November 11, 2018, from https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-medication/cannabis/producing-selling-hemp.html
Compass Canada Clinic. (2018, January 30). Cannabis 101: An Introduction to Medical Cannabis. Retrieved October 24, 2018, from https://www.compasscannabis.ca/cannabis-101-introduction-medical-cannabis/
Medical Marijuana Consulting. (2018). About Cannabis. Retrieved October 24, 2018, from http://medmc.ca/about-cannabis/
Somerset, S. B. (2018, September 01). Canadian Cannabis Debut Delayed In Ontario. Retrieved November 29, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarabrittanysomerset/2018/08/15/canadian-cannabis-debut-delayed-in-ontario/
Wikipedia Contributors. (2018, November 11). Effects of Cannabis. From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 11, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_cannabis
Wikipedia Contributors. (2018, November 11). Hemp. From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 11, 2018, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp
