TORONTO: The Canadian government said Wednesday it will soon announce the date when cannabis will become legal — but warned it will remain illegal until then.
The Senate gave final passage to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s bill to legalize cannabis on Tuesday. But Canadians will have to wait at least a couple of months to legally buy marijuana. The country will become the second in the world to make pot legal nationwide.
“The legislation is transformative,” said Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, adding it “marks a wholesale shift in how our country approaches cannabis, leaving behind a failed model of prohibition.”
The federal government said provincial and territorial governments will need eight to 12 weeks following Senate passage and royal assent to prepare for retail sales. Legal sales are expected to start sometime in early or mid-September.
Wilson-Raybould suggested Trudeau could announce the legalization date as soon as later Wednesday, when the prime minister has an end-of-Parliament session press conference.
“The law still remains the law,” Wilson-Raybould said. “I urge all Canadians to continue to follow the existing law until the Cannabis Act comes into force.”
Canada is following the lead of Uruguay in allowing a nationwide, legal marijuana market, although each Canadian province is working up its own rules for pot sales. The federal government and the provinces also still need to publish regulations that will govern the cannabis trade.
Many questions remain unanswered, including how police will test motorists suspect of driving under the influence, what to do about those with prior marijuana convictions and just how the rules governing home cultivation will work.
The Canadian provinces of Quebec and Manitoba have already decided to ban home-grown pot, even though the federal bill specifies that individuals can grow up to four plants per dwelling.
“Provinces can set their own laws. If individuals are challenging that law, they can challenge it,” Wilson-Raybould said.
Former Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, who is the parliamentary secretary to the justice minister, said discussions for pardons of past convictions “can’t take place” until legalization is in effect.
In the neighboring US, nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana. California, home to one in eight Americans, launched the United States’ biggest legal marijuana marketplace on Jan 1.
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Canada to announce marijuana legalization date soon
Canada to announce marijuana legalization date soon
- Canada is following the lead of Uruguay in allowing a nationwide, legal marijuana market
- Nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana in the US
Fire breaks out in Seoul’s last-remaining shanty town
SEOUL: A fire on Friday in one of Seoul’s last-remaining shanty towns burned makeshift houses and forced dozens of residents to flee, but no casualties were immediately reported.
Much of the fire was under control about 6 1/2 hours after the blaze broke out in Guryong village in southern Seoul, fire officials said.
Local fire officer Jeong Gwang-hun told a televised briefing that rescuers were searching each house in the burned area to look for possible victims.
More than 1,200 personnel including firefighters and police officers were deployed to the scene, he said, adding the cause of the fire was under investigation.
The hillside village has occasionally had fires over the years, a vulnerability that observers say is linked to its tightly packed homes built with materials that easily burn.
The village is located near some of Seoul’s most expensive neighborhoods, with towering high-rise apartments and lavish shopping districts, and has long been a symbol of South Korea’s stark income inequalities.
The village was formed in the 1980s as a settlement for people who were evicted from their original neighborhoods under massive house clearings and redevelopment projects.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the city were removed from their homes in slums and low-income settlements during those years, a process then military-backed leaders saw as crucial in beautifying the city for foreign visitors ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.
Much of the fire was under control about 6 1/2 hours after the blaze broke out in Guryong village in southern Seoul, fire officials said.
Local fire officer Jeong Gwang-hun told a televised briefing that rescuers were searching each house in the burned area to look for possible victims.
More than 1,200 personnel including firefighters and police officers were deployed to the scene, he said, adding the cause of the fire was under investigation.
The hillside village has occasionally had fires over the years, a vulnerability that observers say is linked to its tightly packed homes built with materials that easily burn.
The village is located near some of Seoul’s most expensive neighborhoods, with towering high-rise apartments and lavish shopping districts, and has long been a symbol of South Korea’s stark income inequalities.
The village was formed in the 1980s as a settlement for people who were evicted from their original neighborhoods under massive house clearings and redevelopment projects.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the city were removed from their homes in slums and low-income settlements during those years, a process then military-backed leaders saw as crucial in beautifying the city for foreign visitors ahead of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.
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