
Canada to announce marijuana will be legal by July 1, 2018 - paglia_s
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberal-legal-marijuana-pot-1.4041902
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trapperkeeper79
I'm not a user but have a question for people with more experience. I recently
had a few very bad experiences at the movie theatre where (a) the entire
outside area smelled of what I think was weed, and (b) the person next to us
in a very full theatre reeked of it. We had to leave because it was a really
bad odour. Is Toronto going a bit overboard in the short term while people are
experimenting or is this just the way it is going to be? I.e. we stop going to
movies, etc. I'm not being judgemental .. want to try to be open about it.
What does one do in this situation?

I see drunk people from time to time too but I can avoid them fairly easily.
MJ seems harder to avoid. I also had a run in at a beach recently where I was
there to watch the sunset. The MJ user also seemed to be there for that reason
.. I just moved away. Harder to do in a packed theatre.

~~~
canadian_yeah
Couldn't you have simply changed seats? The odour issue isn't any worse than
cigarettes (it's arguably much more pleasant smell).

Re:Toronto, there have been literally a million casual users here for years
(as there are in any major city). I don't expect a major shift in behaviour.
If anything, easier access to edibles and vaporizers will likely reduce the
frequency of smelling it.

~~~
IanCal
> Couldn't you have simply changed seats? The odour issue isn't any worse than
> cigarettes

I highly disagree, at least in strength. I can't smell tobacco when outside
just because my people are smoking indoors and have their windows open, I can
with weed.

~~~
nkrisc
It's all subjective. In the nice summer weather I can't open my windows
because all my neighbors smoke so my home just ends up reeking of disgusting
cigarette smoke. It'd be equally as gross if it was weed.

------
delegate
I see many comments here about the health and social effects of smoking
marijuana and there's of course a very valid point in each of those
discussions - smoking (anything) is not good for your lungs and smoking around
unsuspecting non-smokers is disrespectful (and gets them high, because weed
smoke is active even in the air!).

But there's another angle that I'm curious about: the mentality shift that it
will generate in society as more and more people start using the herb - for
recreation, medication or as an industrial plant.

It's a very powerful plant, people have been using it for thousands of years,
because it grows everywhere and has lots of industrial uses.

And of course we've all been indirectly influenced by it: by listening to the
music, lyrics, books or movies created by artists who were high.

It's a great companion for both the consumption and production of all types of
entertainment, from videos to video games, design and even coding !

So in a way it's even more useful today than it has ever been, which is why,
sooner or later it will get legalised in a lot more places.

Like so many things, if abused, It's addictive and makes people lazy and
demotivated, but the value it brings to its users ( and indirectly to the huge
information and entertainment (and food!) industry) is quite high :)

I'm just curious how will society change after, say, 50 years of legal weed ?
Will we still be trying to fight wars or will everyone just chill down, smoke
the herb and play their sitars in peace ? :)

~~~
metaphorm
> smoking around unsuspecting non-smokers is disrespectful (and gets them
> high, because weed smoke is active even in the air!).

disrespectful, ok, I can agree with that. second-hand smoke (of any kind) is a
type of highly local air pollution and it's bad manners to smoke (anything) in
an inappropriate spot.

however, are you serious about second-hand high? I feel like this is a
destructive myth and I'm really surprised to see it being promulgated on
hacker news.

~~~
acoard
Absolutely it's a thing. At the more extreme end you have "hotboxing", i.e.
trapping a lot of the smoke in a confined space, like a car. If you sat in the
passenger seat of a car and didn't smoke, and I did, and we had all the
windows rolled up, you would definitely get a bit of a high.

Outside in a well ventilated area it should be a non-issue, though again I'd
recommend extreme care in not involuntarily exposing people.

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noarchy
>But the provinces will have the right to decide how the marijuana is
distributed and sold. Provincial governments will also have the right to set
price.

I don't look forward to the potential outcome of this. Most provinces have
long been saddled with alcohol monopolies that keep prices quite high,
particularly when compared to neighbouring US states. I can easily see
provinces setting up similar, monopolized retail systems for weed.

Canada already has a huge black market in untaxed cigarettes, and if provinces
are not careful with prices/taxes, the already-existing black market in
marijuana will live on.

~~~
eyeJam
I can never find sympathy for people who complain about high alcohol tax in
Canada. Is this something that really affects your quality of life? Or is it
more of personal inconvenience? Alcohol taxes violate vertical equity. And
they should. Lower income individuals should not be encouraged to purchase
more alcohol, since they are more likely to be vulnerable to the negative
social, mental and physical effects of alcohol consumption. Reducing alcohol
tax leads to a greater burden on the healthcare system.

~~~
sdm
> I can never find sympathy for people who complain about high alcohol tax in
> Canada.

To be fair, the OP to didn't mention anything about taxes. The high taxes on
alcohol have to be paid irrespective of private or public distribution
channels. The OP is more guilty of generalizing from ON to the rest of the
country when it comes to public distribution channels.

~~~
arcticbull
I second the idea alcohol should be expensive, I don't much care if the Delta
is due to tax or monopoly profiteering by the province -- I'm not sure I can
tell the difference tbh, the latter is a de facto tax.

~~~
aianus
The government monopoly in Ontario runs advertising campaigns, sales, and
loyalty programs to encourage people to buy more booze.

It's a sleazy regressive tax program, not a health program to reduce
consumption.

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jmcdiesel
I fail to see the reason for the delay... Just stop enforcing, period. There
is no reason to continue enforcing something that you KNOW is going to be
legal soon. Its just letting the last of of the money feed into the judicial
system...

~~~
mabbo
They pretty much did over a decade ago. My own brother was caught[0] by the
police with a handful of joints- they ripped them up and threw the remains in
a ditch. They don't care, unless you're running a very public chain of retail
shops that sell weed to anyone.

[0]Due to idiot friend, the officer had grounds to search the vehicle. I do
not like my brother's idiot friend.

~~~
sdm
Like almost everything about Canada, this is very much a regional thing.
Cities and provinces have a lot of leeway to deprioritize things like
marijuana prohibition. Just because you won't get busted for simple possession
in Vancouver or Toronto, doesn't mean you won't get busted in Regina or
Winnipeg. There have been over 22k arrests for simple possession since Trudeau
assumed office with the promise of legalization. [1] And the government has
said it will not issue pardons for anyone convicted from these arrests.

[1] [http://vancouversun.com/news/community-blogs/22400-pot-
posse...](http://vancouversun.com/news/community-blogs/22400-pot-possession-
arrests-under-trudeau-so-far)

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peterarmstrong
As a Canadian, Canada should also look at legalizing non-hockey metaphors.
Stickhandling as a way of describing legislation? Really?

~~~
watter
At least we don't call our MPs "lawmakers", that term is so bizarre to me.

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chollida1
[https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-27/canada-
po...](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-27/canada-pot-stocks-
surge-after-report-of-legalization-date)

A lot of institutional money in marijuana right now, its hard to hedge so this
will make alot of people breath a bit easier now.

~~~
_acme
What is hard to hedge? If you have a large investment in corporations in the
pot industry (although I would dispute your claim that there is a lot of
institutional money in pot now), you could easily hedge against the fall of
these corporations with CDS and other derivatives.

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ohstopitu
This is great news! I wonder why we can't legalize all drugs?

I have a side tracked question about this:

Let's say you were in prison for dealing Marijuana. What would the status of
your case be now considering that it would be legalized?

(as in, would you still have to serve your term even though the crime you did
is now considered legal?)

~~~
freehunter
They could vote to ease punishment for past offenders, but that would be an
exception and not the rule. In general people are beholden to the law at the
time they're caught breaking it. I got a speeding ticket, and a few months
later the speed was changed to match the speed I had been doing. I still was
guilty of breaking the law at the moment I was stopped.

So they could put in an exception for past users, but the law defaults to what
the books said at the time you committed the crime. If that wasn't the case,
people could be convicted of crimes that were not illegal at the time they
committed them.

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robodale
What the hell is Ricky going to do for money now?

~~~
animex
My friend's friends apparently all grow weed in BC and they are all faced with
this new dilemma of finding something new. A bunch tried to get Medical MJ
grower licenses but they recently pulled them all. It's estimated BC's weed
crop is worth more than it's Lumber output in terms of GDP.

~~~
watter
The estimates of the underground market ranged from 1 to 3 Billion per year in
the cannabis economy when I lived there. It is a substantial industry there
which means a LOT of people in that province work in the black market.

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nkrisc
I'm all for legalized marijuana, I just wish we could do away with _smoking_
it in public (and cigarettes). I have no problem with it but the smell.

~~~
Nagyman
Smoking will continue, but I suspect that many people will choose to consume
via edibles/oils/etc which won't have a smell, or vaporizers which also have
minimal odour.

When the dispensaries popped up all over Toronto (pre-raid) there were MANY
edibles, so I assume they were popular. Sadly, after the raids the
dispensaries switched to /just/ flower and concentrates. One can still order
concentrates and edibles online however.

~~~
nkrisc
I'm all on board for vaporizers, oils, edibles, etc. since they smell far less
than smoking. Though I do get the appeal of the ease of smoking it.

------
hoodoof
If we have been wrong about prohibition of marihuana for so long, then it
seems reasonable to ask "are we not wrong about all drug prohibition"?

Like honestly, who really cares if people make a personal decision to take
cocaine or ecstasy or whatever? It's not something I'd do, and doesn't seem
good for your health, but apart from that, it's not harming anyone other than
the consumer. And if all drugs are freely available and manufactured
professionally then they would be much safer and more predicatable and far
less likely for people to overdose due to variances in strength of street
drugs.

Cheap, clean freely available drugs mean that addicts don't have to dedicate
their lives to their habits and thus are more likely to hold together ordinary
family life and jobs.

~~~
SimpleXYZ
No, things are not black and white. Having a heroin vending machine next to
every gumball machine is a bad idea.

~~~
forgottenacc57
Weird. The post you replied to says nothing like that.

~~~
SimpleXYZ
Oops, I thought he said "cheap, clean freely available drugs".

~~~
hfsktr
everyone has a different idea of freely.

Does requiring a prescription make something not freely available?

What about stores that limit sales (cough syrup or whatever)?

Cigarettes/alcohol have age restrictions and I would call them freely
available. I took the comment to mean something more along those lines.

------
hoodoof
I don't smoke marijuana but I welcome it primarily because I hope that freely
available marijuana will mean people are less inclined to try meth.

People want to get high, and if they can't get some pot down at the shop, then
I think they are more likely to try much more dangerous drugs.

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canadian_yeah
They are actually rushing to get it introduced by 4/20 (I'm not kidding):
[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-
rushing-...](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-rushing-to-
draft-marijuana-legalization-bill-ahead-of-420-sources-say/article34431990/)

~~~
watter
They promised it last year. A lot of people, including current health permit
(authorized) users have been complaining that nothing has happened since last
April. It might have won him the last election but I don't know the numbers
(probably nobody does).

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sanguy
At least Justin Trudeau will go down in the history books for something
besides tanking the Canadian economy....

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steiger
It's always 'later', and 'later' it never happens as promised.

Look at Uruguay. It is legalized - but no pharmacy sells, it's incredibly hard
to find legal marijuana, and so the illegal market still thrives.

The medicinal model of the USA is still probably the most successful
legalizaton case worldwide.

~~~
officelineback
I have heard Portugal's legalization system is also a huge success.

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aanm1988
I'm Canadian and live in the US.

I think it should be legal, since I don't see any reason not to legalize. I'm
just worried that this + Trump/Sessions in charge will make things more
difficult at the border.

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cassowary
I am sceptical of these kinds of changes. Why is it that governments are going
to such trouble to essentially eliminate tobacco, but they are permitting
another problematic drug? And it's usually the same side of politics who wants
to get rid of tobacco, as wants to introduce marijuana! On the face of it it's
strange.

I guess the only thing good about this is it might make it easier to see
whether cannabis might cause schizophrenia in certain at-risk populations. :/

~~~
viraptor
Considering the effects, one seems much safer than the other. Are you saying
that schizophrenia rates from smoking pot are higher than cancers and lung
issues from cigarettes?

~~~
ams6110
You think smoke from marijuana isn't harmful to your lungs? Particularly as
it's often inhaled as deeply as possible?

~~~
ImTalking
You cannot use harm as an argument unless you also include tobacco, alcohol,
and opiates. These are the drugs that kill directly and indirectly. We know
this, we've known this for decades, and yet they are still legal.

And if it is harmful to smoke, so what? The State allows me to drink 10
bourbon bottles a night, or 10 packs of cigs, or 10 large pizzas now. Do we
own our bodies or not?

~~~
Tempest1981
Although what happens when liver damage and cancer occur? Are you driving up
healthcare costs and premiums for all?

~~~
ImTalking
Yes, and the State and society is fine with that judging by the fact that we
understand the severe consequences of tobacco, alcohol, and opiates and they
remain legal. For example, we know that in 2015 over 10,000 fatalities
occurred on the roads due to alcohol and, once again, we are fine with the
human tragedy and increased healthcare costs.

