High Time: The Legalization and Regulation of Cannabis in Canada

241 Pages·2019·1.257 MB·English

by  Andrew Potter, Daniel Weinstock

high time

H I G H T I M E
The Legalization and Regulation of
Cannabis in Canada
Edited by
Andrew Potter and Daniel Weinstock
Published for the McGill Institute
for Health and Social Policy by
McGill-Queen’s University Press
Montreal & Kingston • London • Chicago
© McGill- Queen’s University Press 2019
ISBN 978-0-7735-5636-2 (cloth)
ISBN 978-0-7735-5641-6 (paper)
ISBN 978-0-7735-5723-9 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-0-7735-5724-6 (ePUB)
Legal deposit second quarter 2019
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec
Printed in Canada on acid-free paper that is 100% ancient forest free
(100% post-consumer recycled), processed chlorine free
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, which last year
invested $153 million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country.
Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien. L’an dernier,
le Conseil a investi 153 millions de dollars pour mettre de l’art dans la vie des
Canadiennes et des Canadiens de tout le pays.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
High time : the legalization and regulation of cannabis in Canada /
edited by Andrew Potter and Daniel Weinstock.
Issued in print and electronic formats.
ISBN 978-0-7735-5636-2 (cloth). – ISBN 978-0-7735-5641-6 (paper). –
ISBN 978-0-7735-5723-9 (ePDF). – ISBN 978-0-7735-5724-6 (ePUB)
1. Cannabis – Government policy – Canada. 2. Marijuana – Government policy –
Canada. 3. Drug legalization – Canada. I. Potter, Andrew, editor II. Weinstock,
Daniel, 1963–, editor
hv5822.c3h54 2019 362.29’5 c2018-905751-3
c2018-905752-1
This book was typeset in 10.5/13 Sabon.
Contents
Introduction 3
Andrew Potter and Daniel Weinstock
part one politics
1 In Praise of Political Opportunism, or, How to Change a
Policy in Only Fifty Years 9
Andrew Potter
2 Legalized Cannabis in Canada:
Federalism, Policy, and Politics 22
Malcolm G. Bird
3 Cannabis Legalization and Colonial Legacies 35
Jared J. Wesley
4 Cannabis and Conflict of Interest: Is It Wrong for Public
Officials to Profit from the Legalization of Cannabis? 50
Chris MacDonald
part two public health
5 Will Legalization Protect Our Kids? 67
Daniel Weinstock
6 Legalize It (But Don’t Advertise It): The Public Health Case
for Cannabis Legalization 79
Jean-François Crépault
vi Contents
part three law
7 Is Legalization a War on Drugs by the Back Door? 99
Jacob Stilman
8 Unequal Justice: Race and Cannabis Arrests in the
Post-Legal Landscape 114
Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, Alex Luscombe, and Brandon M. Finlay
9 What Jurisdiction for Harm Reduction:
Cannabis Policy Reform under Canadian Federalism 132
Alana Klein
part four economics and taxation
10 Technology, Black Markets, and Retail Marijuana 151
Anindya Sen and Rosalie Wyonch
11 The Legalization of Marijuana and the Remembrance
of Things Past 165
Stephen T. Easton
12 Cannabis Legalization: Lessons from Alcohol, Tobacco,
and Pharmaceutical Industries 182
Michael DeVillaer
part five the international context
13 Cannabis Legalization Is the Inconvenient Test of Canada’s
Commitment to the Rule of International Law and a
Rules-Based World Order 205
Roojin Habibi and Steven J. Hoffman
14 The Portuguese Experience with Decriminalization 218
João Castel-Branco Goulão
Acknowledgments 231
Contributors 233
high time

Introduction
andrew potter and daniel weinstock
Of all the promises made by the Liberals during the 2015 electoral
campaign, marijuana legalization seemed, at first glance, to be the
easiest to achieve. Whereas electoral reform, which ended up being
abandoned early on by the Trudeau-led government, raised a host
of issues both technical and constitutional, ending a prohibitionist
regime with respect to marijuana that had clearly failed to meet its
objectives over the years seemed comparatively easy. All you needed
to do to legalize marijuana, it seemed, was, well, to legalize mari-
juana. That is, you just had to eliminate the criminal prohibitions
against it that existed.
This is a case where first appearances would have been enormously
misleading. The legalization of marijuana in Canada turns out to be
a hugely complex and risky venture, one that raises serious concerns,
and that will continue to elicit controversy, across a wide range of
policy domains that cut across federal, provincial, and municipal
jurisdictions.
The first source of complexity stems from the fact that Canada is
striking out into the unknown. No other country has legalized mari-
juana in quite the same way that Canada has. Uruguay’s regime, for
example, is much more restrictive than Canada’s will be. For exam-
ple, marijuana producers in that country must apply for licenses,
and the drug is at present still sold only through pharmacies. At the
other end of the spectrum, the tolerationist regime currently in place
in the Netherlands makes no effort to control supply.
Canada’s legal regime will vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
In some cases, marijuana that has been supplied by licensed produc-
ers will be sold through provincially run cannabis stores; in others,