Friday, March 29, 2024

Canadian Senate votes in favour of bill to legalize recreational cannabis

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Canadians are one step closer to enjoying their recreational weed legally, as the Senate passed Bill C-45, the Cannabis Act, on Thursday.

The bill was adopted by a vote of 56 to 30, with one abstention.

The legislation will now go to the House of Commons for more deliberation. The House and Senate will debate further amendments until a final draft is agreed upon, at which point it will receive Royal Assent and become law.

The Bill C-45 was first introduced in the Senate and given first reading on Nov. 28, 2017 after it was passed in the House of Commons on Nov. 27.

Earlier last May, it looked like legalization may be delayed for a year to due to concerns regarding a lack of “meaningful consultation” with First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities.

Those concerns seem to have been addressed in some capacity however, according to CBC.

The federal government initially promised that cannabis would be legalized by July 1, but that date now seems unlikely; the provinces and territories will need an eight-to-twelve week implementation period, which pushes things back to early October.

For a better sense of how legalization will look in British Columbia, read our breakdown from last April.

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Myles Sauer
Former staff editor and writer at Victoria Buzz.

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