Canada becomes second country to legalise recreational marijuana

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45806255

Canada has become the second country after Uruguay to legalise possession and use of recreational cannabis.

Medical marijuana has been legal in the country since 2001.

But concerns remain, including about the readiness for police forces to tackle drug impaired driving.

Information has been sent to 15m households about the new laws and there are public awareness campaigns.

Ian Power, from the town of St John's began queuing at 20:00 local time so he could "make history". Newfoundland is half an hour ahead of the next province to the west.

"It's been my dream to be the first person to buy the first legal gram of cannabis in Canada, and here I finally am," he said.

Canadian provinces and municipalities have been preparing for months for the end of cannabis prohibition. They are responsible for setting out where cannabis can be bought and consumed.

This has created a patchwork of more or less restrictive legislation across the country.

Meanwhile in the US, various institutions are working hard to undermine medical marijuana use, including the LDS Church in the state of Utah.

A fine example of freedom. Sure is something we here in The States, the "leaders of the free world," could learn from. Well perhaps we can with the next administration anyway, cause it won't happen with our current disaster.

But that would hurt the prison industry.

@horgen: Exactly, but I say so be it!

But that means less profit for some. We can't have that.

@horgen: I say screw em.

Remove the government subsidies in the prison industrial complex. (drug laws with the main incentive to fill the jails/prisons)

Louisiana is one of the worst states regarding this. So they can have more people in "work release." Where they get paid less than the jail that is housing them for the work they do. It's basically fuel for slave labor.

Good. A medically proven helpful plant like the Mary Jane is bad yet a medically proven deadly plant (tobacco) is good. How does that come to fruition.

Some rich people might disagree with this.

Speaking of prisons....... the brand new government store I was in today. You enter the building and enter a room with a locked door and a glass window between it and the next room. A receptionist opens the window and checks your ID. A security guard opens the door and lets you into the second room. In the second room you get a number, and yes another locked door lies between you and the actual product floor. After waiting a while, a guard unlocks this door and you can enter the floor where you are assigned a guide. Oh and by the way all of the products are behind glass anyway.

So that's two locked doors plus the regular entrance, two security guards, a receptionist behind a glass window all to get into a room where the products in question are locked up.

It was a lot of bother just to find out they didn't get their oil in stock yet, just the flowers... I'm a little pissed off.

It’s about damn time.

@horgen: Again I say screw em.

The rich have been over coddled since the birth of this nation. Those that make money off of the prison system have been coddled, and subsidized since the 70s.

I don't care if they disagree. Anyone with a brain knows they will. Still these draconian drug laws have got to go.

You should read the Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II.

In Ohio its not even a group like that; its the growers that supply a large portion of the nation. If it was legalized, the monetary starting point of many southern Ohio communities would be devastated. For those people and their communities, I can see why they voted it down the last time it was on the ballot (not to mention the growing monopoly that it would have caused, putting money on in a few hands).

Thanks, I will give it a go once I finish my current book (and current list), and have some free time.

I finished "The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition through History," and I am now on "The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates." These are some pretty thick books, and I read slow, but I like books that are worth the read like these.

This is not the first time I have heard about that book, and now I have heard about it from a few sources. I will have to add it to my list.

Argh, I wonder how long until supply stabilizes. The stores have nothing.

I'm okay with that being up to individual states.

It should have never been made illegal in the first place. Federally legalize it PERIOD. If you don't want to do it, then don't. No one is forcing you to imbibe. (or the children)

It is that simple. I am not a supporter of States Rights, but I applaud the states that stand up to this draconian, and oppressive federal law on a plant, and people who use it. So many in prison/jail that are not supposed to be there!

That has nothing to do with what I said and it's a disgrace that you admit to not being for state's rights.

@LJS9502_basic: Actually its all relevant. I am stating that it should be legalized federally period, not just each state's say so. Very much to do with what you said!

Secondly, I find it sad you think it's a disgrace. States Rights will lead to religious indoctrination of the young through public schooling in southern states, if you bother to see the trends of massive religious privilege. States rights removes access to things like abortion. States Rights will lead to MORE, not less people in prison. (and in turn slave labor) States rights leads to one sided power within that state, and massively grow the inequality that is already there. What good is federal law, if the states ultimately get to decide? I find it's a disgrace people are so blindly loyal to things without even the slightest logical extrapolation. Seriously what is the point of keeping this illegal in certain states? It's preposterous.

Old republicans making Murica' behind on this.

Well, Canada does what Canada does, and nice they are now the stoner country of the world, which considering their mellowness can´t become any worse.

So what you're saying is the Republican party is a cancer.

Meanwhile, our AG is doubling down on efforts to keep people in prison for drug use and possession. Have to keep people in prison or else we can't prop up our prison industrial complex, and in the case of some states, if we don't lock them up we have to let them vote!

@LJS9502_basic:

"So what you're saying is the Republican party is a cancer."

Nice to try, and quantify me into dismissal for putting words in my mouth that fit that criteria. Do you ask the same of republicans/conservatives that post quite a bit more negatively towards/about liberals/dems?

I am not democrat, I am independent, and I have my problems with both parties. I have my problems with the two party system itself. But the Republican/conservatives are the bigger problem between the two, and that is only exacerbated each cycle. Only those so blindly partisan on the right don't notice it at this point, and there are record numbers leaving that party these days.

The Republicans definitely are a cancer party. The scumbag Don the con barking about illegal immigration from South america.

If he really wanted to keep those people from immigrating here, he could take one simple step and the illegal immigration from South America would vanish literally over night. End the war on drugs, legalize them and regulate it instead. This would deal a crippling blow to the cartels and give those south American governments their power back. People don't flee a stable country.

There will always be people buying drugs. So why the hell should a fuking cartel make the profits instead of an American farmer? This is the kind of sht that blows my mind. Republicans party are simply scum, trying to make the immigrants look bad...they are simply victims of US policy. Don't talk out of your ass on immigration if you're not prepared to legalize/regulate drugs here at home. If you caused the problem...and it was that duche regan that started the whole war on drugs, then don't complain about the swarms of people coming to the country.

The Canadians have fukd over the cartels with marijuana legalization. Those south American countries are probably calling Canada up and thank Trudeau for doing a great deed.

You listed their ideologies and said they were negatives and as such states shouldn't have a say.

They are negatives, and most of them are objectively negative. That would be the issue if States had the final say... The republicans have hoodwinked so many in the south, that they will go along with having those ideologies forced down the throats of everyone within the state far more than they already are!

So you dismiss my question, seeing if you ask the same of republicans when they speak of democrats, or liberals. I am not surprised one bit that was glossed over. I don't think the people in the republican party are cancer, which is what you are trying to frame me in saying, again so its easy to dismiss/discredit. But quite a few of the ideologies in the republican party are quite, like you said, cancerous. So moving on at this point.

Actually it was Nixon who started the farce we know as the war on drugs.

That clown Ronald Reagan, and his wife Nancy, just made it far worse with the "just say no" campaigns, and tightened the laws further. Along with increasing the national debt more percentage wise than any president except FDR including present day. (but atleast we got the New deal out of FDR) Reagan's tax cuts lead to massive income inequality, and the biggest wealth gap this nation has ever seen. (because every tax cut from the right ever since has done the same thing, exacerbate the problem) Funny how the right is so quick to demonize Hollywood, but yet they are the first to elect a celebrity.

Well done.

Isn't the U.S the land of the free? Why isn't it legal on a federal level? Fail.

Dope