Canada’s Senate is expected to vote this week on dozens of amendments to the federal legislation that will legalize recreational marijuana – a move that is causing concerns that such changes could result in lengthy delays.
The Senate’s Social Affairs Committee has proposed 34 changes to the marijuana legislation and is due for a final vote this Thursday. The changes are expected to pass with amendments and would then go back to the House of Commons to consider those changes.
Canada’s Parliament is scheduled to break for the summer later this month, but Canadian lawmakers won’t adjourn until the marijuana legislation has concluded its parliamentary process, a senior government official told Bloomberg News. However, this could prove problematic if the Senate insists on changes to the legislation that the lower house is unwilling to make – setting up a showdown over cannabis.
Conservative Senators are resisting the bill, which they say doesn’t address issues such as how police will test for impaired drivers and the health risks of young people who use the drug. Carolyn Stewart Olsen said at a hearing last week that the bill needs more than simple technical change and called it “extreme social change for the country.”
Other changes proposed by the Senate include allowing provinces to ban home cultivation of cannabis plants, adjustments around penalties for improper use and the government’s future powers to regulate the legal marijuana system.
The exact date when marijuana will become legal across Canada is not yet known, with the federal government distancing itself from its original pledge to open the market by July 1, which is Canada Day across the country.
