From WN

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ran his 2015 campaign on a promise to legalize marijuana for recreational use and will now see Canada become the largest country in the world to do so on Wednesday, according to USA Today.

The move could start a global revolution concerning the legalization of marijuana as Canada is undertaking a massive amount of research to help better understand the medical reasons for using cannabis and could help improve the plant’s image compared to alcohol and tobacco.

Canada will officially become the highest-profile country to tax, regulate, and monitor the growth, distribution, and sale of recreational marijuana beginning tomorrow in a number of government-run stores as others hurry to open soon after the official starting date.

“They know they are the global leaders if they get it right. And they are making this a priority from the top down,” said April Pride of Van der Pop, a Seattle-based women-focused cannabis lifestyle brand operating in the USA and Canada, to USA Today.

Since it’s federally decriminalized, pot businesses can use banks, trade stocks, and even sponsor peer-reviewed medical studies like a pharmaceutical company.

“Canada fully legalizing marijuana for adult use is a historic moment that the whole world should celebrate,” said Daniel Yi, a spokesman for California-based marijuana company MedMen, which has operations in the USA and Canada.
The law will be slightly different in each of the country’s ten provinces and three territories, but the new legislation allows anyone to purchase the drugs from recognized shops so long as they are eighter 18 or 19.

Anyone caught giving the drug to a minor would remain a crime and could result in a maximum sentence of up to 14 years imprisonment.

It will also still be illegal to sell on the black market, meaning someone without a license can’t sell even the smallest amounts to their close friends.

Most provinces will allow individuals to possess up to 30 grams of marijuana, but some may have more lenient rules.

CNN
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Recreational marijuana is now legal in Canada: – Adults will be allowed to carry and share up to 30 grams of legal… https://t.co/KCWpUfajsr

American-based firms are welcoming the legalization in their northern neighbor since it’s a new market for them but also since it can help foster legalization efforts in the U.S. and around the world.

Canada has also agreed to allow sales online and have products shipped to home addresses, exhibiting how spread out Canada’s 37 million residents are.

Uruguay is the only other country to fully legalize recreational marijuana since 2013, but cannabis is also decriminalized for personal use in the Netherlands and Portugal.

Nine states across the U.S. also legalized recreational marijuana and Washington D.C., with another 13 states who have decriminalized its use.

-WN.com, Maureen Foody

For more on this story and video go to: https://article.wn.com/view/2018/10/17/canada_set_to_become_largest_country_ever_to_legalize_mariju/