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McLellan said half her task force visited Denver and returned with useful information and no horror stories. She and the other half of the task force visited Washington’s Seattle and Olympia, cities she had visited before.

“Honestly, I don’t think any of us noticed any difference to what was going on there … previously,” she said.

McLellan was speaking Friday at the University of Windsor’s Transnational Criminal Law in the Americas conference on the topic of From Prohibition to Regulation — the Way Forward. The former deputy prime minister and attorney general, who also held the justice and health portfolios during her tenure in government, once described marijuana as a “scourge” but in December reported back that legalization was the way to go.

The key, she said, is a proper regulatory regime that keeps cannabis out of the hands of children and youth and organized crime. Among the task force’s 80 recommendations: pot to remain illegal for those under 18 (provinces can set a higher age limit); additional supports for police and public education; tougher criminal penalties for everything from selling to minors to driving while impaired; no pot sales near such locations as schools, churches and community centres or where liquor is sold.

“This is going to happen … everybody needs to be aware of the implications,” she said.

While the federal and provincial governments have much to do in setting rules and guidelines, McLellan said municipalities and their police departments need to get started at the local level. The former Alberta MP said her city of Edmonton has already begun a review of municipal bylaws. She said municipalities, for example, can decide where to permit retail outlets, but she warns that it’s “a very bad idea” to concentrate them all in a single district.