OTTAWA — The Senate has passed the federal government's bill to legalize recreational cannabis by a vote of 52-29. </s> TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s Senate has given final passage to the federal government’s bill to legalize recreational cannabis, though Canadians will have to wait at least a few months to legally buy marijuana.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government had hoped to make pot legal by July 1, but the government has said provincial and territorial governments will need eight to 12 weeks following Senate passage and royal assent to prepare for retail sales. Trudeau’s Cabinet is expected to decide a legalization date in early or mid-September.

The law makes Canada the second country to have a nationwide, legal marijuana market, after Uruguay. Each province in Canada is coming up with rules for the sale of recreational pot.

The bill passed in the Senate by a vote of 52-29 on Tuesday. </s> TORONTO — Canada’s Senate has given final passage to the federal government’s bill to legalize recreational cannabis, though Canadians will have to wait at least a few months to legally buy marijuana.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government had hoped to make pot legal by July 1, but the government has said provincial and territorial governments will need eight to 12 weeks following Senate passage and royal assent to prepare for retail sales. Trudeau’s Cabinet is expected to decide a legalization date in early or mid-September.

The law makes Canada the second country to have a nationwide, legal marijuana market, after Uruguay. Each province in Canada is coming up with rules for the sale of recreational pot.

The bill passed in the Senate by a vote of 52-29 on Tuesday. </s> Image copyright AFP/Getty Image caption The Senate passed the bill, with 52 votes in favour and 29 against

Canada's parliament has passed a law legalising the recreational use of marijuana nationwide.

The Cannabis Act passed its final hurdle on Tuesday in a 52-29 vote in the Senate. The bill controls and regulates how the drug can be grown, distributed, and sold.

Canadians will be able to buy and consume cannabis legally as early as this September.

The country is the second worldwide to legalise the drug's recreational use.

Uruguay became the first country to legalise the sale of cannabis for recreational use in December 2013, while a number of US states have also voted to permit it.

Cannabis possession first became a crime in Canada in 1923 but medical use has been legal since 2001.

The bill will likely receive Royal Assent this week, and the government will then choose an official date when the law will come into force.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that until now, "it's been too easy for our kids to get marijuana - and for criminals to reap the profits".

But some groups objected to the new law, with opposition Conservative politicians and indigenous groups among those voicing concerns.

The government is expected to give the provinces and territories, as well as municipalities, eight to 12 weeks to set up the new marijuana marketplace.

This timeframe will also allow industry and police forces to prepare for the new legal framework.

In 2015, Canadians were estimated to have spent about C$6bn ($4.5bn, £3.4bn) on cannabis - almost as much as they did on wine.

How will legal marijuana in Canada work?

It is likely that by mid-September, Canadians will be able to buy cannabis and cannabis oil grown by licensed producers at various retail locations.

Canadians across the country will also be able to order the drug online from federally licensed producers, and grow up to four plants at home.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Take a look inside the world's largest legal cannabis farm

Adults will be able to possess up to 30 grams (one ounce) of dried cannabis in public.

Edibles, or cannabis-infused foods, will not be immediately available for purchase but will be within a year of the bill coming into force. The delay is meant to give the government time to set out regulations specific to those products.

The minimum legal age to buy and consume marijuana has been set federally at 18 but some provinces have chosen to set it at 19.

Provinces are in charge of how it is sold and have the power to set various other limits on its use within their jurisdiction - like where it can be smoked.

But the federal government has set guidelines for plain packaging with little branding and strict health warnings. It will also impose restrictions on promotions targeting young people, promotion through sponsorships, or depictions of celebrities, characters or animals in advertisements.

What will remain illegal?

It will be illegal to possess more than 30 grams of cannabis in public, grow more than four plants per household and to buy from an unlicensed dealer.

Image copyright Press Association Image caption There will still be some restrictions on cannabis use in Canada

Penalties will be severe. Someone caught selling the drug to a minor could be jailed for up to 14 years.

Some critics say the penalties are too harsh and not proportional to similar laws like those around selling alcohol to minors.

What are the rules around the world?

Cannabis is banned in most countries but a number of places have decriminalised its use in recent years. The UK government said recently it would review the use of medicinal cannabis.

It is legal for medicinal purposes in 14 European countries, Israel, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Panama, Mexico, Turkey, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

In the US, medicinal use is allowed in 29 states and the District of Columbia, Nine of the states have legalised both medical and personal cannabis use.

Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Jamaica, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador and Luxembourg are among countries that have relaxed legislation regarding personal use.

Did anyone object?

The new law has not been met with universal praise.

Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer has previously said he was apprehensive it would normalise cannabis use and make it more accessible.

Leo Housakos, a Conservative senator from Quebec, tweeted to say that he thought the law would be "catastrophic for Canadian generations to come".

One specific concern being raised is the legal minimum age being set at 18 instead of 25, as was recommended by multiple experts. However, the government's own task force recommended 18, warning that setting the age limit too high could continue to encourage youth to buy marijuana on the illegal market.

Opponents also question the potential public health impact of legalisation.

Meanwhile, indigenous groups and politicians have voiced fears that their communities were not adequately consulted in the run-up to the vote.

Indigenous services minister Jane Philpott and health minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor had to write a letter to the chair and deputy chair of the Senate's Committee on Aboriginal Peoples earlier in June promising a full report to parliament addressing their concerns, narrowly averting a delay to the law's passage.

Why is Canada doing this now?

This legislation fulfils a 2015 campaign promise by Mr Trudeau, the leader of the Liberal Party.

The prime minister has argued that Canada's nearly century-old laws criminalising use of the drug have been ineffective, given that Canadians are still among the world's heaviest users.

Polls have repeatedly indicated that a solid majority of Canadians are supportive of the move.

The decision to legalise recreational use of marijuana in Canada comes as global trends shift away from criminal prohibition of the widely used drug. </s> The Canadian parliament passed a bill Monday to legalize cannabis that would make Canada the first G7 country to allow free consumption of the mind-altering drug.

The bill was passed by 205 votes to 82 in the House of Commons. The legislation must now pass the Senate, and receive royal assent by the governor general before becoming law, likely by September. The Senate could still delay its implementation, but not block it.

"We're probably looking at a date of implementation (of legalization) somewhere toward the beginning of September, perhaps mid-September," the Liberal government's pointman on the pot file, Bill Blair, told broadcaster CTV on Sunday.

Last week, the government rejected 13 out of 46 amendments to the bill proposed by the Senate after several months of study, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's health minister rising to defend home cultivation of cannabis and branded pot swag.

"Canadians are allowed to make beer at home, or wine," Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor said Friday. "It is already possible for Canadians to grow cannabis for medical purposes and we absolutely believe the legislation should be consistent when it comes to recreational cannabis."

The government, she said, would follow its expert panel's recommendation to allow at-home cultivation of up to four pot plants for personal use.

As for the proposed advertising restrictions, she said the bill already contains limits such as a requirement for plain packaging.

Legalizing weed was a 2015 campaign promise of Trudeau, who has admitted having smoked a joint with friends "five or six times."

An initial July 1 target was set for ending the pot prohibition that dates back to 1923.

Despite political setbacks, Trudeau has insisted his government would move to legalize the production, sale and consumption of the psychoactive drug this year.

Statistics Canada has estimated that the market will be worth Can$5.7 billion (U.S.$4.5 billion), based on last year's consumption data. </s> Canada's Senate has given final passage to the federal government's bill to legalise recreational cannabis, though Canadians will have to wait at least a few months to legally buy marijuana.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government had hoped to make pot legal by July 1, but the government has said provincial and territorial governments will need eight to 12 weeks following Senate passage and royal assent to prepare for retail sales.

Trudeau's Cabinet is expected to decide a legalisation date in early or mid-September.

The law makes Canada the second country to have a nationwide, legal marijuana market, after Uruguay.

Each province in Canada is coming up with rules for the sale of recreational pot.

The bill passed in the Senate by a vote of 52-29 today. </s> Recreational marijuana use is a step closer to being legal in Canada, after the House of Commons approved the Cannabis Act on Monday. The legislation is now in the Senate, where it has been the subject of debate and proposed amendments.

"The Senate had proposed 46 amendments to The Cannabis Act but the Liberal government rejected several major ones last week," the CBC reports, "including one provision that would have affirmed the provinces' right to ban home cultivation of marijuana."

A reminder: In Canada's parliamentary system, the House of Commons is the more powerful of the two chambers. The Senate, whose members are appointed rather than elected, plays a somewhat controversial role and is often the subject of talk about reform — similar to Britain's House of Lords.

Canada's minister of justice sponsored the cannabis bill; the government announced its push for legalization last spring with an official news release that stated, "The current approach to cannabis does not work."

The government said that making marijuana illegal "has allowed criminals and organized crime to profit, while failing to keep cannabis out of the hands of Canadian youth."

It added, "In many cases, it is easier for our kids to buy cannabis than cigarettes."

Those points were echoed by Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last fall, when he welcomed the news that the bill was making its way to the Senate.

The proposed law would make it legal for anyone who's over 18 years old to possess marijuana, provided that it's less than 30 grams (just over an ounce). It also allows Canadians to grow up to four marijuana plants in their home.

The bill's authors write that legalization would have several benefits, from protecting the health of young people (by restricting access) to undercutting criminal enterprises and reducing the workload of the criminal justice system. It would also allow for quality control and public health awareness campaigns.

But critics of the bill say that part of the reason they want to keep marijuana illegal is that they're not convinced that the government will be able to disrupt the marijuana black market to any substantial degree.

That was one point raised by Conservative Sen. Percy Mockler, who said on Monday that "the initiative suffers from a serious absence of policy analysis."

During the debate, Sen. Peter Harder, the government representative in the Senate, said:



Canada's government has also published the results of a cannabis survey, based on more than 9,000 responses from people across the country, ages 16 and up.

In the survey, 'About half of all respondents indicated that cannabis had a positive effect on a person's mood (51 percent), creativity (45 percent), anxiety (50 percent), and sleep (49 percent)," Canada's health ministry said.

The government also said "77 percent of all survey respondents thought that using cannabis could be habit forming."

Medical marijuana has been legal in Canada since the early 2000s. If it legalizes recreational use now, it would give America's northern neighbor another competitive edge in what is widely seen as an emerging and lucrative industry.

"You've got big American alcohol and tobacco companies making investments in Canadian pot firms, because they see an opening," as Peter O'Dowd reported for NPR's Here and Now last month.

One expert told O'Dowd that because of America's more restrictive laws, "We are literally giving the next multibillion-dollar industry... to the Canadians." </s> Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has vowed to sign into law any bill that legalizes cannabis in the Great White North.

Canada’s House of Commons voted Tuesday to legalize recreational marijuana nationwide, and the proposed law will now head to the country’s Senate, where it faces an uncertain future, NPR News is reporting.

In its current form, the bill would make it legal for any adult over 18 years of age to possess less than 30 grams (or just over an ounce) of marijuana. What’s more, the bill would allow Canadians to have up to four marijuana plants in their homes.

Now in Canada’s Senate, which is composed of appointees rather than elected representatives, and which has less power than the House, the bill faces an uncertain future. Already Senators have proposed at least 46 amendments to the law, including one that would allow Canada’s 15 provinces to forbid their residents from growing pot in their own homes. Thirteen of those amendments have already been rejected by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.

Also, according to ABS-CBN News, the Canadian Senate doesn’t have the power to block the law, but rather, it can only delay its implementation. The law will also require royal assent from the Governor General, acting on behalf of Canada’s constitutional sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II. However, the role of Governor General is largely ceremonial and she lacks any real political power.

Liberal spokesperson Bill Blair said that the law will likely be in effect by the end of summer.

In an official news release from Trudeau’s Liberal government, the ruling party said that Canada’s 95-year prohibition of cannabis has failed on every level.

However, opposition party opponents say that the bill, as written, does little to combat the black market of cannabis in Canada. Conservative Senator Percy Mockler, speaking for the opposition, said that the bill “suffers from a serious absence of policy analysis.”

In Canada’s neighbor to the south, the United States, the future of marijuana continues to get murkier. Although marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, over half of the 50 states have legalized either recreational or medical marijuana. The Obama-era Justice Department followed a general guideline of not interfering in states’ rights to allow marijuana – a policy that Trump appointee Jeff Sessions reversed. However, Donald Trump has promised to support a bill that would affirm the states’ rights to regulate marijuana on their own, according to The Hill. </s> Canada has legalized recreational marijuana use after the country's two legislative chambers approved the Cannabis Act Tuesday, the CBC reports.

The bill will allow Canadian provinces to control and regulate how marijuana can be grown, distributed and sold, and it's likely that sales will begin by the end of the summer. The Cannabis Act makes Canada the first Group of Seven nation, and the second country in the world (after Uruguay) to legalize marijuana for adults nationally.

The Cannabis Act still needs Royal Assent – the final step the Canadian legislative process – to become law, but that is expected to happen later this week. Built into the bill is an eight-to-12 week buffer period that will allow provinces to prepare for the recreational sale of marijuana. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet will set the official date on which the law will actually go into effect.

Trudeau made legalizing cannabis part of his campaign platform in 2015, and in 2017 he introduced legalization legislation. On Twitter, the Prime Minister marked the passage of the Cannabis Act, writing, "It’s been too easy for our kids to get marijuana – and for criminals to reap the profits. Today, we change that. Our plan to legalize and regulate marijuana just passed the Senate."

The Cannabis Act will make it legal for anyone over 18 to possess up to 30 grams of marijuana, while adults will also be allowed to grow up to four marijuana plants at home. While the bill establishes a national framework for how the cannabis market will operate, each province will be allowed to set their own system of licensing and regulation.

Canada legalized medical marijuana in 2001, though the law required patients to grow their own plants or designate another individual to grow it for them. A 2013 legal challenge broadened the law to create a system of federally licensed producers, but that ruling was itself challenged three years later on the grounds that it unreasonably limited access and increased costs. Though the 2016 ruling didn't explicitly make dispensaries legal, it encouraged the idea that such a business could operate so long as it was for strictly medical reasons. In the years since, a gray market of sorts sprouted up in various Canadian cities, with many dispensary operators growing increasingly comfortable as legalization approached.
The House of Commons of Canada votes to legalize recreational cannabis. The bill will now head back to the Senate, where it is expected to be passed into law.