Canada : Marijuana Laws

[User]

Possession:
Cannabis (ex: marijuana) 30 grams or less: up to 6 months imprisonment or $1000 fine or both

Trafficking or Possession for purpose of trafficking:
More than 30 grams: imprisonment up to 5 years less a day
3 kilograms or less: imprisonment up to 5 years less a day
More than 3 kilograms: up to life imprisonment.


Using Cannabis for Medical Purposes

Marijuana has not been approved as a therapeutic product in Canada or anywhere else in the world. The safety and usefulness of marijuana for medical uses has not been clearly and scientifically established. Canada does however, have a program that allows seriously ill persons residing in Canada to possess marihuana for their own medical use. Under the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR), people can be authorized to possess a specific amount of marihuana and can be licensed to grow their own marihuana or designate someone else to grow it for them.The MMAR require a person to have the support of a medical practitioner when applying for an authorization to possess marijuana for medical purposes.

A person may be allowed to possess dried marijuana to alleviate symptoms associated with medical conditions, such as:
•nausea and vomiting in patients being treated for cancer
•severe pain, anorexia and weight loss in patients with cancer, AIDS
•pain and muscle spasms in patients with multiple sclerosis or spinal cord injuries
•epileptic seizures
•severe chronic pain

All other possession and production of marijuana by individuals is illegal.

Source: National Anti-Drug Strategy - Drug Laws in Canada


The legal status of marijuana in Canada is under dispute. Superior and appellate courts in Ontario have repeatedly declared Canada's marijuana laws to be of no force and effect. However, historical challenges to marijuana laws at the federal level have not resulted in the deletion of the appropriate articles from the Criminal Code of Canada and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. Police and prosecution services in other Canadian jurisdictions still pursue criminal charges for marijuana possession.

The cultivation of cannabis is currently illegal in Canada, with exceptions only for medical usage. However, the use of cannabis by the general public is broadly tolerated, and a vigorous campaign to legalize cannabis is underway nation-wide.

Several polls since 2003 have found that a majority of Canadians agreed with the statement, "The use of marijuana should be legalized", the latest being the 2008 Angus Reid poll. The recent development after the last election is however the opposite, a much more restrictive law with higher minimum penalties for drug crimes and a national anti-drug strategy including prevention and treatment.

History of Cannabis prohibition

Cannabis was added to the Confidential Restricted List in 1923. Historians usually point to the 1922 publication of Emily Murphy’s The Black Candle as the inspiration for the addition. Murphy was a suffragist and police magistrate who wrote a series of articles in Maclean’s magazine under the pen-name “Janey Canuck,” which formed the basis of her book. She uses numerous anecdotes culled mostly from anti-drug reformers and police to make her arguments, which make strong links between drugs and race and the threat this poses to white women. One chapter is entitled Marahuana – A New Menace, and makes the startling claim that the only ways out of cannabis addiction are insanity, death, or abandonment.

Although her anti-drug screeds were widely read and helped spread the drug panic across the country, historian Catharine Carstairs disputes that the short chapter in Murphy’s book on cannabis inspired the drug’s inclusion on Canada’s restricted substance list. Specifically, Murphy was not respected by the Division of Narcotic Control because of the creative liberties she took in presenting research they had assisted her with.

More likely, cannabis was added to the list because of Canadian involvement in international conferences where it was discussed. According to one government official, cannabis was outlawed after the Director of the Federal Division of Narcotic Control returned from League of Nation meetings where the international control of the drug was broached. Cannabis did not begin to attract official attention in Canada until the latter 1930s, and even then it was minimal.The first seizure of cannabis by Canadian police was not until 1937. Between 1946 and 1961, cannabis accounted for only 2% of all drug arrests in Canada.

Source: Wikipedia

[reyreyhbk1]

Very informative.

[michaelkaer]

The cons in control here wrote that bit of fiction about there being no therapeutic use then went on to magnanimously gives us some access. We are fighting to change the MMAR but it is a slow process.

[Lacy]

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[michaelkaer]

What part of "IT IS SAFE AND IT WORKS" do the governments not get?