Content area
Full text
Canadians will be able to legally purchase and consume recreational marijuana by mid-September at the latest after the Senate voted June 19 to liftalmost a century-old prohibition on cannabis.
Senators voted 52-29, with two abstentions, to pass Bill C-45, after seven months of study and debate.
Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor has said the provinces will need two to three months after the bill is passed before they'll be ready to implement the new legalized cannabis regime.
"We have seen in the Senate tonight a historic vote that ends 90 years of prohibition of cannabis in this country, 90 years of needless criminalization, 90 years of a just-say-no approach to drugs that hasn't worked," said independent Sen. Tony Dean, who sponsored the bill in the upper house.
Canada is the first industrialized country to legalize cannabis nationwide.
"I'm proud of Canada today. This is progressive social policy," Dean said.
However, Dean and other senators stressed that the government is taking a very cautious, prudent approach to this historic change.
Cannabis will be strictly regulated, with the objective of keeping...