Canada is Legalizing Marijuana. Here Are Some Questions, Answered.

Well done, Canada. All drugs should be legal, nicotine and alcohol are, and look at the damage they cause! It's treatment victims need, not prison.

If marijuana is legalized, the best is grow your own (up to 6 plants), no sales permitted (undercuts the black market), you can share your own product (nice for those not able to grow) and no taxes (keeps government out). Place a hefty penalty on selling (say 2 years in prison).

No one, and I mean no one, who is a former daily cannabis smoker agrees with its legalization. Why? Because they know the truth: Marijuana is a “demotivator” extraordinaire, a gateway drug, and psychologically addictive. The proponents of cannabis are quite frankly potheads. The politicians that support cannabis legalization are either potheads themselves or wholly uninformed. Farewell Canada. You’ve just driven another nail in the coffin in which the world will bury you.

Just curious about the banking side of things. In the U.S. there’s a problem with our banks handling pot financing, profits. Will our pot businesses be able to use Canadian banks now? Perhaps that might spur Congress to recognize reality.

Michigan where medical marijuana is legal, has the legalization of recreational pot on the November ballot. It will be interesting to see how the legalization of pot in Windsor affects us here in Detroit. As a teenager, we could drive over the bridge or tunnel and drink beer legally at 18 instead of 21 in Detroit. If it doesn't pass in November how convenient it will be to take the short trip to Windsor for a legal smoke.

I think smoking pot in the US Congress should be mandatory, perhaps we'd get better legislation? Oh, my mistake, let the boozers cut Medicare and Social Security: Yeah, that's the ticket!

I'm Canadian. This is a dumb move, implemented in a dumb and confusing fashion and will lead to more people doing dumb, and dangerous things. But at least we can't own handguns.

What Canada and many US states recognize is that nothing hurts the violent cartels more than legalization. They learne the lesson of Prohibition, that banning something people want only gives rise to powerful, well funded, organized crime. Let's hope that when Mr. Reefer Madness, Jeff Sessions, and his Republican allies leave the stage, the USA will learn the same lesson.

This is a nice piece, but there is an angle I don’t think the Times yet realizes. In legalizing, Trudeau was simply being realistic about the fact that marijuana is relatively benign compared to cigarettes and alcohol, and the reality that it’s use is fairly common. The part that goes unspoken is how, as you descend through the subordinate jurisdictions, from Provincial to municipal you see the other side of Canadian liberalism. What is revealed is the essential character of how this liberalism is implemented. In Ontario, where I live, what is revealed is that the ‘liberals’ are actually deeply conservative. Their liberalism reigns in conservatism’s worst excesses but at the same time they put stupid, impractical barriers in the way of the implementation of policy because they fear change. This is to say that today in Ontario you can posses and consume marijuana, but good luck obtaining any on the legal market. Storefronts? Not for a year likely (pre-legalization there were many). This is consistent with the province’s monopoly on the sale of alcohol, which by the way places significant limits what you can buy to just main line brands (except for beer, because Canada eh). The irony is that the Conservative (used car salesman) Premier Doug Ford’s election saved the implementation from being yet another nanny state entity, and was in fact quite liberal.

USA right to carry and possess: guns Canada right to carry and possess: weed. That’s the way we like it here.

Thank you for this informed piece of information. It is important to observe that cannabis will still be illegal for minors. The French newspaper Le Monde forgets to mention this for instance. What about the relation between cannabis consumption before the end of the brain formation (26 years) and IQ loss ?

I don't think the legalization is something for my fellow Canadians to be too proud of. As experimental as it may be calling it a "cultural revolution" and describing as some sort of enlightenment or win for society is a big stretch. Even though now legal it is still a drug and the less wide spread it is the better for everyone. I hope Canada can find some middle-path in regulating it to keep the marketing machine under control and prevent "More doctors smoke Camel..." scenario.

“Canada is poised on the edge of a cultural revolution and dramatic social experiment as it prepares to legalize marijuana on Wednesday.” Let’s not pretend like nobody smokes weed before any of this. It’s basically making something done regularly by large amounts of the population “official” Sorry to burst the headline bubble, but the revolution is over. It was long over.

I think a lot of people won't be satisfied if the legal cannabis is weaker than what you can get from other available sources. The whole thing about cannabis for stress relief, as a sedative, etc. etc. is that it hits you all at once and you feel a lot better almost immediately, making the world is a better place to inhabit. Will people who drink settle for lower proof whiskey?

In the US police enrich themselves by impounding cars and property, money is made by lawyers and the private prison industry. These vested interests, as well as the pharmaceutical industry pay off politicians to keep pot illegal, for financial gain...Canada has never had a rigged system like that...there, pot is just pot--no big deal...

Question: what is the approximate yield and $ value of a mature cannabis plant?

Keep it simple. Whatever laws apply to booze, apply them to pot, a far less lethal and a more benign substance.

I am not Canadian but the state I live has medicinal use as cool and their are no limitations on strength. Guess what, this will not hurt non-legal seller because I and many others would still buy the best they can. $7 Canadian is dirt cheap and I think they will find it hard to continue holding prices so cheap. I don't think a grower in the Great White runs his or her operation any cheaper than down here. I think it will be a few years until it shakes down.

Nevada legalized recreational cannabis on July 1, 2017. DUI arrests are up slightly. The percentage of students reporting use is down slightly. ER visits for symptoms related to the consumption of cannabis are up significantly on a percentage basis for children and adults, but those numbers are still very low (i.e., for persons over 65, 9 visits statewide in 2017 versus 4 visits in 2016). Tax revenue is at 110% of projections. The black market is alive and well. It’s too early to tell what effect decriminalization has had on law enforcement costs or incarceration rates. Society hasn’t collapsed.

You say that no amnesty is planned for Canadians convicted for possession of marijuana. The Ottawa Citizen reports otherwise: https://ottawacitizen.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/parents-not-just-.... Here is the article, if the link does not work: The federal government plans to move Wednesday on easing the process of obtaining a criminal pardon for simple pot possession. The Canadian Press has learned the announcement on setting aside minor marijuana convictions of the past will come as the government ushers in a historic new era of legalized cannabis. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has faced pressure to address the pot pardon issue, including within his own caucus, due to the effect of possession charges on marginalized Canadians. Until now, simple possession of marijuana has been punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and six months in jail. Individuals have been eligible to apply for a pardon through the Parole Board of Canada five years after the conviction is handed down. But the waiting period and the cost of applying for a pardon, known as a record suspension, have proven difficult for some people saddled with records.

My hometown Kamloops will have Canada’s first government run Cannabis shop. It opens tomorrow at 10am. Who do I speak to about a cannabis emoji?

Can U.S. citizens legally buy weed in Canada when visiting?

Deadly killer weed being consumed at will. Think of how many cops, DA’s, prison guards, defense attorneys, judges will be thrown out of work if this moved south, not to mention instructors, professors and administrators for criminal justice training. So this cannot be permitted!

I've spent too much time in various Courts in New York and New Jersey, watching non criminals prosecuted for weed not to celebrate this change. Canada is smart enough to realize they are de-funding organized crime. We should do the same. The West Coast is legal. Nevada is legal. Colorado is legal. The buildings are still standing in those state, and the sun continues to rise and set. In the East, DC, Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts are legal, although nothing's for sale OTC yet. They might still be beaten by New Jersey, or, even, New York, home of the slow walk medical program.....

I hope the Canadian military and Mounted Police impose the same 28 day ban for alcohol, a far more dangerous drug.

What happens if I smoke pot legally in Canada, and then return to the United States a week later. If I test positive in a drug test at work, can I be fired from my job?

What will be missed, I think, is the frisson of adrenalin; doing something that is illegal; in places where you really shouldn't; to prepare for situations where it would be best that people don't know. It will be okay. And maybe some day, we will be able to accept that we have disrupted badly a lot of lives. And those disrupted lives will be able to accept it as well.

When did the New York Times start referring to marijuana as "weed?" I look forward to even more elegant variations here. "Grass" might be too old school for the now-hip Times, but what about "chronic." Or descriptions of "lighting up a doobie."

I am actually interested in the pain relieving part of marijuana, not the psychotropic aspects and wonder if the legalization of pot in Canada will make it easier/cheaper to get more effective CBD oil products than the 3% stuff I pay a fortune for by mail order (which only helps a little). I have connections in Canada if it comes to that; but I am hoping that the easing of the ridiculous anti pot laws will spread south when the feds see that nothing bad happens in Canada and realize there is revenue to be made...

It will be interesting to see if anyone remembers to celebrate "Legalization Day" on October 17, 2019.

So at the border of the State of Washington and British Columbia, marijuana being legal in both, presumably the Canadian Customs agents will have no issues with people crossing the border into Canada with marijuana. However, what about from BC into Washington? Or, for that matter, any airport in States with legal procession of marijuana?

Meanwhile Massachusetts is still working on making recreational pot available, 22 months after it was legalized.

This should have been covering this as front page news and again in the business sections regularly over the past year. You’ve over covered trump and everything negative. Meanwhile anyone reading Bloomberg has had such a huge opportunity for Americans to profit and I’ve seen 1,000 percent returns in this market. Please diversify your reporting. This has been going on for almost two years and your readers have been missing out. Especially in your financial section. You over cover negative news your readers miss out.

Good for Canada. The US should follow suit with national legalization, to include recreational use. The caveat should be that a high (no pun intended) percentage of the tax revenues be used for the public good, e.g., health care subsidies for the poor, improved schools and infrastructure. Marijuana use is widespread everywhere and all of the millions and millions of dollars changing hands are below the radar. The revenue starved states could use an infusion of legitimately collected tax revenue. And in the final analysis, people will continue buying and smoking marijuana, legal or not.

Jesus. Universal healthcare and legal weed. Canada keeps rubbing our noses in it.

I watched the legalization in Oregon come. It became a very vertical business, i.e., the same people own the farm who own the testing labs who own the dispensaries. That seems like a conflict of interest to me. I watched as the novelty wore off and people tired of it. I don't think it will remain the booming business it is when it first starts out. Smoke in the lungs is smoke in the lungs and not good for us, even if it makes us high.

Am I right to presume that if online sales from the government will be the most common means of procurement, that Canadian postal carriers become de facto distributors?

I would imagine a lot of Americans living in border states will be engaging in marijuana tourism to Canada. I assume this is not a problem as long as they don't try to bring it back, but can the US border patrol impede this in any way? If they can stop business people, who are in the pot industry, from traveling from Canada to the US, what can they do about the flow going the other way?