Is this the end of the black market for marijuana?
Decisions will need to be made over the next year about the role of pharmacies, liquor stores and dispensaries
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Marijuana was criminalized in Canada in 1923. There was no debate in the House of Commons, just the statement, "There is a new drug in the schedule." The prominent magistrate Emily Murphy had written a book in 1922, concluding of marijuana, "… there are three ways out from the regency of this addiction: 1st – Insanity. 2nd – Death. 3rd – Abandonment. This is assuredly a direful trinity." We’ve come to acknowledge that the line drawn between legal and illegal drugs in the early 20th century had nothing to do with public health and everything with culture and political economy. Drugs such as alcohol and tobacco were acceptable, while the drugs of the developing world – opium, coca and cannabis – were morally offensive and deserved criminal prohibition.
