(Image credit from: Lars Hagberg/AFP/Getty)
Abstract: The Senate voted 52-29 to approve the
government’s newest version of Bill C-45. The bill would lift a 95-year-old ban
on recreational marijuana and sets the government up to regulate production,
possession and sale of marijuana to Canadians over the age of 18. Cannabis—or
marijuana—is currently legal in Canada only for medicinal purposes, under
conditions outlined in the Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations
(ACMPR) issued by Health Canada, and for seed, grain and fibre production under
license by Health Canada. Cannabis was banned in Canada from 1923 until
regulated medical cannabis became legal in 2001. In the U.S., medical marijuana
is legal in more than two dozen states, and recreational marijuana is legal in
nine states and Washington, D.C. Cannabis affects the central nervous system of
people, especially the central nervous system of young people. The users are
significantly less likely to be cognitive, data processing, and high-level
executing. Long-term use of marijuana can cause respiratory damage, damage
bronchial cilia, and reduce the bactericidal ability of alveolar macrophages.
There are also medical researchers who believe that smoking marijuana may
increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and pneumothorax. Car accidents and
crime rate will rise significantly after the legalization as shown in Colorado
and Washington State. The consensus in medical research is that cannabis
affects adolescents and weakens their memory. As to revenue, after the
legalization of recreational marijuana in Oregon, the local cannabis planted
has sprung up and prices have fallen sharply. There is also the issue
government acountability to use the revenue fairly and properly. Marijuana is
not a common good, nor is it like tobacco or alcohol. Strict regulations should
be set, and the models of Uruguay, Georgia and states in the US should be
studied.
Key Words: Marijuana, Risk, Legalization,
Regulation
I.
General Introduction
On June 18, 2018, something happened which
would affect every Canadian’s life. On that day, the House of Commons voted
205-82 to accept some of the Senate’s proposed amendments of Bill C-45. The
House of Commons turned down some of the Senate's proposed amendments,
including a ban on pot producers selling branded merchandise and giving
provinces the power to ban homegrown marijuana, according to CTV News. The
Senate voted 52-29 to approve the government’s newest version of Bill C-45. The
conflict between the elected House of Commons and the unelected Senate ramped
up last week with the government’s rejection of several key Senate amendments —
most notably one linked to home cultivation. Quebec, Manitoba and
Nunavut have all decided they don’t want to allow home grows, in spite of the
federal government’s desire to permit four plants per household. The Senate
decided to side with the provinces, inserting a provision that would allow them
to ban home grows if they desired. The bill would lift a 95-year-old ban on
recreational marijuana and sets the government up to regulate production,
possession and sale of marijuana to Canadians over the age of 18[i].
Cannabis—or marijuana—is currently legal in
Canada only for medicinal purposes, under conditions outlined in the Access to
Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) issued by Health Canada, and
for seed, grain and fibre production under license by Health Canada. On October
17, 2018, Canada is to become the third nation in the world, after Uruguay and
Georgia, to formally legalize the drug (in spite of NB in Sept 2017). It will
also become the first G7 and G20 nation to do so. Cannabis was banned in
Canada from 1923 until regulated medical cannabis became legal in 2001. The recreational
use legalization is one
of Trudeau’s campaign promises. The plan was to remove
cannabis possession for personal consumption from the Controlled Drugs and
Substances Act; however, new laws would be enacted to strengthen punishment of
those convicted of either supplying cannabis to minors, or of impairment while
driving a motor vehicle. Bill C-46 includes new powers for police and harsher
penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs like forcing drivers
to submit to random breath tests (without any reasonable suspicion of
impairment) that could detect the active ingredient in marijuana. In the U.S.,
medical marijuana is legal in more than two dozen states, and recreational
marijuana is legal in nine states and Washington, D.C[ii].
II.
Benefits and Harm of Marijuana
Cannabis products probably do, based on
current evidence, help treat chronic pain, prevent nausea in cancer patients
under chemotherapy, and improve patient-reported outcomes for muscle problems
in people with certain diseases. There’s moderate evidence it can help certain
kinds of patients with their appetite and sleep[iii].
However, there are many bad effects[iv].
Cannabis affects the central nervous system of people, especially the central
nervous system of young people. As a hallucinogen, it brings an illusion that
is out of control, making behavior that is incomprehensible and controllable,
and its harmfulness is unpredictable. Cannabis users are significantly less
likely to be cognitive, data processing, and high-level executing. According to
an article published in the Spanish magazine "Fun", Jennifer Snyder,
a psychology professor at Harvard Medical School, pointed out: "The
function of brain cells in any person who smokes marijuana will change."
Professor Walter Fratta of biology at the University of Cagliari of Italy
emphasized: “Long-term heavy consumption of marijuana can lead to changes in
the molecular elements of the brain structure responsible for addiction and
withdrawal.” For people with a weak will, marijuana, like cigarettes, is an
anesthetic, and An anaesthetic is not a good thing for a country that needs to
be awake. While middle-aged men have a tendency to get overweight, women often
have a harder time discontinuing pot after heavy use, with symptoms such as
irritability and sleep disruption, and smoking cannabis while pregnant may be
associated with lower birth weight. Long-term use of marijuana can cause
respiratory damage, damage bronchial cilia, and reduce the bactericidal ability
of alveolar macrophages. There are also medical researchers who believe that
smoking marijuana may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and
pneumothorax. Car accidents are also incurred. In Colorado, for example, after
the state legalized marijuana, the marijuana-related car accidents rose 16% in
number, and the crime rate in Denver, Colorado's capital, increased by 7%. .
According to a Washington State Transportation Safety Board report, the number
of deadly car accidents involving marijuana increased by 48% from 2013 to 2014
after marijuana legalization. The consensus in medical research is that
cannabis affects adolescents and weakens their memory. Long-term smoking can
lead to mental anxiety or schizophrenia.
Also, marijuana legalization may encourage a hippy
culture and run in conflict with Convention on the Rights of the Child, the
1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the international legal drug control
framework, and the rules-based international order[v].
III.
Discussion on Justification for the
Legalization
As far as
the writer knows, there are three reasons for the present Federal government to
legalize marijuana: commitment to past voters, soliciting votes of about a
third in quantity of the voters in the coming election and potential tax
revenue from the industry. As for the former two, a means should serve a goal,
but not vice versa. A government only looking for keeping its position may not
be welcome, and realizing a disputed promise cannot be put as an achievement.
As to revenue, after the legalization of recreational marijuana in Oregon, the
local cannabis planted has sprung up and prices have fallen sharply. According
to the Oregon Bureau of Economic Analysis, the retail price per gram of
cannabis has fallen by about 50% since 2015. According to Stephen Easton, a
professor of economics at Simon Fraser University and a senior researcher at
the Fraser Institute, the market for cannabis is already quite large, and if
you try to create a legitimate market, the price and the supply is bound to
fluctuate greatly[vi]. If this happens, the tax
revenue will not probably increase rapidly. Also, when Lisa Raitt asked about
the fact that a Quebec cannabis company founded by the former Chief Financial Officer
of the Liberal Party received over $200 million in anonymous ‘investments’ from
a company in the Cayman Islands, and the company’s investors were kept secret,
the Liberal Party had no direct answer to that[vii].
Therefore, even if there may be a great increase in tax revenue from cannabis,
the general public will probably not be better off with all the cannabis
revenue to be possibly channelled to Cayman Islands.
IV.
What We Could Do
A Cuomo-commissioned report, led by the New
York State Health Department, recently concluded that the positive impacts of a
regulated marijuana market in New York outweigh the potential negative impacts[viii].
However, legalization won’t end illegal pot[ix],
as a judge said when a grower got fined $700 as processed marijuana must come
from a medical marijuana supplier. “Uruguay has done well to keep with a strict
regulatory model, while expanding the space,” said John Walsh, co-director of
drug policy for the Washington Office on Latin America. “If you start strict,
it’s easier to loosen up later.”[x]
Marijuana
is not a common good because some people may develop dependability on it,
because the information one collects tends to be incomplete with its past
closeness, and because it is not so easy to oversee the market with criminal
groups easily taking advantage of the loopholes. Marijuana cannot be treated
the same as alcohol or cigarettes because: it can be put in candies or drinks
or disserts, which may greatly affect children; it can be mixed with meth,
cocaine and heroin, with no heed of others; it may cause brain damage, which
may become more dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes.
Although it
is hard to overturn the legalization process, something can be done on the
provincial level. Due to its many bad effects, the province needs to put strict
regulations on it. For example[xi],
in Newfoundland and Labrador cannabis can only be bought at privately-run
licensed storefronts and government-operated online sales websites. In
Northwest Territories, cannabis will initially be sold in existing liquor
stores, with possibility of cannabis-only stores in the future. Individual
communities will be able to enact cannabis restrictions and/or prohibitions. Below
is a comparison of regulations across Canada.
Majuana Regulation Comparison across Provinces
Retail Management
|
Plant Growth at Home
|
Limit of Holding in Public
|
Limit of Holding at Home
|
Consumption in Public
|
Majuana When Driving
|
Minimum Age
|
|
BC
|
Government monopoly
|
4
|
30 g
|
No
|
No privately grown plants
|
No
|
19
|
ON
|
Government monopoly with physical stores delayed half a year
|
4
|
30 g
|
No
|
No
|
No
|
19
|
QC
|
Government Monopoly
|
No
|
150 g while purchase less than 30 g
|
N/A
|
Not in tents, allowed at home if others also consume
|
No
|
18
|
AB
|
No government monopoly
|
4
|
30 g
|
No
|
N/A
|
No
|
18
|
SK
|
Privately managed, supervised by SaskGaming
|
4
|
30 g
|
No
|
N/A
|
No
|
19
|
MB
|
Similar to SK
|
No
|
30 g
|
No
|
No
|
19
|
|
NB
|
Government monopoly
|
4
|
30 g
|
No
|
No
|
N/A
|
19
|
NS
|
Government monopoly
|
4
|
30 g
|
No
|
No
|
N/A
|
19
|
PEI
|
Government monopoly
|
4
|
30 g
|
No
|
Allowed in hotels
|
N/A
|
19
|
NF
|
Privately managed
|
No limit
|
30 g
|
No
|
Yes
|
N/A
|
19
|
Source: A look at each province's rules for
marijuana legalization, CTV, updated Aug. 13, 2018; Ontario officially
announced privatization of marijuana sales, to be carried out on April 1,Chinese Hot Issues, August 14, 2018.
After looking at the new policy released by
the Ontario government and the different regulations on Cannabis across Canada,
the writer suggests
learning from Quebec and Manitoba in terms of home growth and in terms of the
municipalities’ right of opting out of having cannabis stores[xii].
As for rented properties, landlords can restrict cultivation and smoking on
their properties in BC, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, which may be readily
borrowed. Those regulations in Saskatchewan may include: (1) prohibited to be
used in work places; (2) prohibited to be sold or used in schools and child
care centres, with marijuana retail stores at least 250 metres away; (3)
prohibited to make advertisements and put on an alluring package; (4)
prohibited to be condensed or put together with drugs like meth, cocaine or
heroin; (5) prohibited to be put in candies or disserts or other edibles for
children, prohibited to give, sell it to kids or allure them to consume it, and
special warnings need to be provided on the package if put in a drink; (6) permit
for a grower and limit on the amount to be grown; (7) Prohibition of home
growth or requirement for a grower to have a permit and a yearly review and a
maximum of plants to be grown, with regulation to put the plants in a enclosure
of 1.60-meter height, and for the retail store to provide a certificate of
origin and install a bar code tracking system, and authorizing landlords to
prevent or ban tenants from planting or using marijuana; (8) license for a
retail store and limit on the amount an adult can buy; (9) Need to prohibit public
consumption of marijuana or have designated places to smoke marijuana like put
in Quebec’s Bill 157[xiii];
(10) prohibited to use it while driving and heavy penalty if the driver is
found after being tested with an oral fluid screening device; (11)Marijuana
cannot be consumed by a certain group of people like drivers, security guards,
police officers, fire fighters, construction workers, doctors, nurses, teachers
and government officials and workers; (12) Tax set to be low in the first half
year and medium to high in the second half-year, in order to encourage all
businesses to compete on a fair ground at first and then crowd out organized
criminal groups, just as done by the US when removing the ban on alcohol.
V.
Conclusion
Marijuana
is not a common good, nor is it like tobacco or alcohol. Strict regulations
should be set, and the model of Uruguay should be studied and drawn on.
大麻合法化：拥抱还是抛弃？
参议院以52对29票通过批准政府最新版本的C-45法案。该法案将取消一项长达95年的娱乐用大麻禁令，并规定政府对18岁以上的加拿大人生产、拥有和销售大麻进行监管。根据加拿大卫生部颁布的“获取医疗用途大麻条例”（ACMPR）中规定的条件，以及加拿大卫生部许可的种子，谷物和纤维生产条件，大麻目前在加拿大仅可以合法用于医疗目的。大麻于1923年在加拿大被禁止，直到2001年受管制的医用大麻合法化。在美国，医用大麻在二十多个州是合法的，娱乐用大麻在九个州和华盛顿特区是合法的。大麻影响人的中枢神经系统，特别是年轻人。大麻用户在认知、数据处理和高级执行方面的能力显着降低。长期使用大麻会导致呼吸系统损伤，破坏支气管纤毛，并降低肺泡巨噬细胞的杀菌能力。也有医学研究人员认为吸食大麻可能会增加患心血管疾病和气胸的风险。如科罗拉多州和华盛顿州所示，大麻合法化后的车祸和犯罪率将显着上升。大麻还会影响青少年并削弱他们的记忆力。大麻的放开还会引导一个嬉皮颓废文化，并违反国际上有关毒品管制条例。关于收入，在俄勒冈州娱乐用大麻合法化之后，种植的当地大麻如雨后春笋般涌现，价格大幅下跌。还有，政府是否可以公平和正确地使用收入也是一个问题。大麻不是普通的商品，也不像烟草或酒类。政府应对大麻的种植、流通与销售、使用以及禁止领域和有关人员制定严格的规定，并研究乌拉圭、乔治亚和美国各州的管理模式。
关键词：大麻、风险、合法化、管制
[i] Anapol,
Avery (18 June 2018). "Canada's House of Commons votes to legalize
marijuana". TheHill. Retrieved 19 June 2018, please click the link below to view the article http://thehill.com/policy/international/392846-canadas-house-of-commons-votes-to-legalize-marijuana;
"Marijuana legalization Bill C-45 officially passes Senate vote, heading
for royal assent", https://globalnews.ca/news/4282677/pot-bill-senate-passes/.
[ii] Cannabis in
Canada, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_in_Canada#cite_note-12,
last updated on July 30, 2018.
[iii] Sy Mukherjee. Here’s What We Know about Marijuana’s Health Benefits
and Risks, Fortune, April 20, 2018, http://fortune.com/2018/04/20/420-marijuana-health-benefits-risks/.
[iv] Canada’s Permission to Legalize Marijuana: To Remove or Absorb
Toxins? http://news.fx168.com/opinion/column/hujiajun/1801/2432072_wap.shtml,
January 13, 2018; https://www.wukong.com/question/6450344344313397517/, August 3, 2018;
Tom Keenan. Examining the Effects of Marijuana on Men. Calgary Herald, Aug 2,
2018.
[v] Canada Must Revoke Cannabis Legalization and Uphold Its UN Treaty
Obligations, https://www.citizengo.org/en-ca/fm/164840-call-canada-revoke-cannabis-legalization-and-uphold-its-treaty-obligations.
[vi] Hard to
increase Tax Revenue by Learning from the American Experience, Abolishing the
Cannabis Black Market and Ushering in the Legalized Market (in Chinese), please
click the link for the article http://www.bcbay.com/news/2018/05/22/576515.html,
May 22, 2018.
[vii] WATCH: Trudeau Asked Why Cannabis Company Founded By Former Liberal
CFO Is Getting Hundreds Of Millions In Secret Cayman Islands ‘Investment’ https://www.spencerfernando.com/2018/02/15/watch-trudeau-asked-cannabis-company-founded-former-liberal-cfo-getting-hundreds-millions-secret-cayman-islands-investment/,
February 15, 2018.
[ix] Legalization Won’t End Illegal Pot, Judge Told as Grower Fined
$700, the Observer (Sarnia), Aug 2, 2018.
[x] Chris Arsenault. Here’s what Uruguay has learned when it comes to
legalizing weed, Vice News, Mar 22, 2018,
please click the following link to view the article https://news.vice.com/en_ca/article/evqnpk/heres-what-uruguay-has-learned-when-it-comes-to-legalizing-weed.
[xi] A look at
each province's rules for marijuana legalization, CTV, updated Aug. 13, 2018, https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/a-look-at-each-province-s-rules-for-marijuana-legalization-1.3894944.
[xii] Interpretations of Ontario's Announcement of Cannabis Retail Model
(in Chinese), released on Aug. 13, 2018, August 14, 2018, https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/SQ8Tk1bX7NogxtrVOkLabg.
[xiii] Catherine Solyome. Countdown to Oct 17: Paradoxes and Peculiarities. Montreal Gazette, July
17, 2018.
