Justin Trudeau campaigned on a plan to legalize marijuana, and his mandate letter to new Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould indicates that he plans to keep that promise. But getting to legalization is a multi-step process that could take several different paths, experts say.

Trudeau issued public mandate letters to each of his cabinet ministers, outlining the priorities for their portfolios. Among other things, Wilson-Raybould’s letter states that she should work with the ministers of health and public safety to “create a federal-provincial-territorial process that will lead to the legalization and regulation of marijuana.”

The letter also includes a mandate to look at sentencing reforms, which could include controversial mandatory-minimum sentences for drug crimes that were brought in by the Conservative government, including for growing marijuana.

“It’s pretty encouraging that it’s in the mandate letter. It will be really interesting to see where it appears in the speech from the throne,” Craig Jones, executive director of NORML Canada, tells Yahoo Canada News.



But there are many factors involved in legalizing and regulating marijuana, and municipalities, provinces and territories and the country will all play a role in outlining what that looks like.



As a first step, Jones would like to see the end of all existing cannabis prosecutions, something the government could do by instructing the Public Prosecution Service of Canada to stand down.

NORML Canada is not united as an organization on what should come next, Jones acknowledges. One step could be passing the deletion of Schedule 2 from the Drugs and Substances Act in the Criminal Code, which would legalize it.

“It does create a vacuum,” Jones says of that path, “and would require the provinces to very quickly get their ducks in a row and figure out how they’re going to regulate.“



Provincial powers

Regional jurisdictions are an important factor to consider on the path to legalization. The provinces, for example, could determine the minimum age for legal marijuana purchases as well as if it is sold through a Crown corporation or privately. That could vary across the country, as it already does for alcohol and cigarettes.

Provinces and municipalities can also make their own decisions on factors like sales tax on marijuana — and even if they choose to ban its sale on their own, regardless of federal legalization.

Prosecution for marijuana-related crimes already varies across the country, depending on the priorities of individual police forces and municipalities. Vancouver has created an application process for medical marijuana dispensaries, for example, but RCMP in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island have ordered several dispensaries there to shut down.



An analysis done by CBC News in September found that charges for pot possession were up by about 30 per cent overall across Canada in 2014 compared to 2006, but that your likelihood of being charged with possession varied considerably by region.



In Kelowna, B.C., for example, there were 251 possession charges per 100,000 people aged 12 or older. But in St. John’s, N.L., there was only 11. The national average per 100,000 people, according to CBC News, was 79.



Lessons from U.S.

Other jurisdictions that have legalized pot can provide some models to Canada. Four U.S. states — Colorado, Alaska, Oregon and Washington — have legalized recreational marijuana and have had to deal with challenges like the regulation of marijuana edibles, home growing and impaired driving legislation.



In Colorado, for example, adults 21 and older are allowed to grow up to six marijuana plants themselves. If you purchase recreational marijuana in a store there is an additional 25 per cent sales tax on top of the regular tax for purchases in the state.



And because there is no approved saliva test for THC, the active ingredient in pot, in Canada or the U.S., states that have legalized marijuana have also had to decide how to test for its presence in cases where impaired driving is suspected. In Washington, for example, a blood test is used — and a warrant must be issued before it can be done, a problem when active THC takes just a few hours to dissipate in the body.



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