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Canada’s Conservative Opposition Comes to Terms With Marijuana Legalization

Canada’s new Liberal prime minister plans to legalize marijuana, and the country’s Conservative opposition knows there’s very little they can do to stop it.

“The new government will legalize marijuana,” Rona Ambrose, interim leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, said in a radio interview on Wednesday. “We know that.”

Ambrose, who served as minister of health under previous Prime Minister Stephen Harper, admitted that legalization has broad public support despite her party’s longtime championing of a prohibition-based approach to drug policy.

“The bottom line is, there’s a huge faction of people in this country…that want access to pot and they want it legalized and it’s for recreational purposes, and that’s the reality,” she said in an appearance on CKNW’s Simi Sara Show. “They were very loud and they were a very strong force, at least here in Vancouver, and they voted for the Liberals and they campaigned for the Liberals.”

The Liberal Party swept the country’s federal elections in October after a campaign in which party leader Justin Trudeau, now prime minister, made ending marijuana prohibition an official platform plank. Because the party won such a strong majority of seats in Parliament, it is all but assured that legalization will be enacted.

One thing Ambrose seems less sure about is how soon she wants Trudeau to move ahead with legalization. During the four-and-a-half-minute radio conversation about marijuana, she first said the government should “take it slow” but later added, “I hope that the faster they move on this, the better.”

Trudeau, for his own part, has said his government will take its time crafting regulations he believes will defeat the black market and keep cannabis away from kids.

“We’re going to get this right in a way that suits Canadians broadly and specifically in their communities, and why we’re taking the time to weigh in properly and ensure that we’re achieving our goals of protecting our young people and removing the criminal profits from marijuana,” he said last month.

On the campaign trail, Trudeau pledged to move ahead with legalization “right away.”

Within two weeks of being sworn in, he directed his ministers of health, justice and public safety to work together to begin crafting a plan for legalization. And earlier this month, Trudeau named former Toronto police chief Bill Blair to coordinate the marijuana policymaking process.

The government has not yet announced a timetable for implementing legalization.


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