Senate to Vote on Weed Legalization This Week

The Waiting Game   A word of caution: you will not be able to buy recreational weed following the (hopefully) good news after Thursday. It will still take around 10-14 weeks before the provinces will begin selling their respective stocks of legal recreational weed (whether through brick and mortar stores, a dispensary in Quebec, a dispensary in Nova Scotia, and others). This is because there are still some regulatory rules that the government needs to fine tune. This is just how things will be before everything can be fully launched, based on comments made by Senator Tony Dean, who can be credited for sponsoring Bill C-45. According to Senator Dean, everyone can probably expect sales to begin sometime during August’s last week or even somewhere in the beginning to mid-September. If you want to buy weed online Quebec for recreational purposes, expect availability around three months from now.   Senator Dean is also quick to remind that it may even take up until October’s first week to get everything just right and ready – and as the bill’s sponsor, he is willing to take as long as it needs to ensure that everything will go as smoothly as possible. This care and concern for the passing of Bill C-45 comes with the awareness that Canada will become the second or even third jurisdiction in the world (at the heels of Uruguay and Portugal, with Portugal totally decriminalizing all drugs) to legally allow the sales and consumption of recreational marijuana.   While Canada is not exactly going to be the first in the world to get it done, it will certainly exercise the most caution to ensure that everything goes smoothly and all concerns have been duly addressed – especially since the whole world will be watching. The Senate voting body is composed of 43 Independents, 11 Liberals, 32 Conservatives, 6 representatives who do not have affiliations, and 13 seats that are vacant, to make up 105 seats in total.  

No Guarantees

  Despite all the positive support, the only sure thing that Senator Dean has commented about is that after 14 whole months of being reviewed by the five committees in Parliament, everything worth examining about C-45 has been thoroughly exhausted. Thus, all Senators casting their individual votes for or against this legislation will do so with complete knowledge to make a very informed decision. In fact, it was only last Monday that the Senate committee sat down to again review each and every clause of the bill.  

Important Amendments to Bill C-45

  A total of forty amendments have been passed, with Dean proposing 29 of them. This includes one amendment that allows both provinces as well as territories to set a ban on home-grown weed, with Manitoba and also Quebec moving in such a direction at the moment. With this, you can probably expect consumers to simply purchase their stash from a dispensary in Quebec or a dispensary in Nova Scotia. A ban on home-grown weed will simply mean recreational users will take the simpler route of having to buy weed online Quebec.   One more amendment that was deliberated upon was the one that concerned certain penalties for those who will be caught carrying an excess of the allowable 30 grams of cannabis or having more than the allowable four cannabis plants in a residence. Those who will violate this will likely be subjected to ticketing offences – which is pretty much similar to an administrative penalty like a parking ticket that will not go on a person’s record.   After being talked about for so many months, we are finally just counting the days to the actual Senate vote – plus a few weeks (give or take) or waiting time before one can buy weed online Quebec for recreational use. For sure, people are even more excited and eagerly expect a good outcome, but only time – a couple of days, to be exact! – will tell.]]>