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The report looks with favour on the draconian regimen used to reduce tobacco use (which health officials would like to stamp out altogether), noting that “few countries have been as successful as Canada in lowering smoking rates and shifting public attitudes.” It points out that today’s marijuana plants are far more potent than casual users may recall from their youth: average THC levels range from 12 to 15 per cent, compared to three per cent in the 1980s. It proposes limits on the sale of pot products, like cookies, candies or creams, arguing they represent an increased risk of accidental consumption, or “normalization.”

It also sides heavily with the need for intense policing on quality, origin and distribution. “Significant efforts” are urged to shut “down illegal operations, be they store-fronts or internet operators.” The operators of illegal “dispensaries” sprouting on the streets of Vancouver and Toronto will find nothing encouraging in the document: there is no sign the Liberals sympathize with their call for a vibrant marketplace. While U.S. states like Colorado and Washington allow retail operations, it notes, they place limits on licensing and locations to take account of neighbourhood attitudes. The report also reflects continuing concerns over organized crime, warning that “regulating a substance does not automatically remove it from illicit markets.”

One thing that is not in doubt is the enthusiasm of the nascent pot industry. Even with marijuana limited to medical use, Canada had 33 licensed producers as of June 28, 416 applications awaiting approval and new ones arriving at a rate of 20 a month. With the many opportunities for taxation, regulation and policing a much-broader legalized market presents, Ottawa would seem to be on the verge of a sizable boom in bureaucracy and a cash cow with rich revenue streams to fuel its yen for spending. Canadians may have thought Trudeau’s support for legalization reflected a liberal approach to drug use; it appears more likely his government is largely appreciative of the opportunity to further expand the government’s size, and its regulatory role in Canadian lives.

National Post