Wednesday, October 30, 2024

Canada becomes second country to legalize marijuana nationwide

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Canada has become the second country after Uruguay to legalise possession and use of recreational cannabis. The nationwide market for cannabis opened on Wednesday at midnight amid lingering questions about the impact on health, the law and public safety.

The sale of legal recreational marijuana has begun in Canada, making it the second country with a nationwide legal pot market.

The Associated Press reported late Tuesday that retail marijuana sales had begun in Newfoundland, the country’s easternmost province, shortly after midnight local time.

Canadian lawmakers voted in June to approve legal recreational marijuana. The vote ended a 95-year-ban on the substance.

The AP reported that more than 100 legal pot shops are expected to open on Wednesday. Provinces are handling their own regulations for sale, growth and taxation of recreational marijuana, though there will be a nationwide minimum age of at least 18 years old.

Under the new law, Canadians can also order marijuana through the mail.

Some provinces may opt to set the age limit at 19.

Medical marijuana has been legal in Canada for nearly 20 years.

Canadian officials are also expected to announce their plan to pardon citizens with marijuana possession convictions for 30 grams or less

28 COMMENTS

  1. Cannabis is just demonized, it can even pay our Eurobonds if the agriculture system is well streamlined and we find export market. A sure way to end hunger in Zambia, cannabis is not as bad as alcohol in terms of vices

    • Zambia was supposed to take that #2 spot. Ok lets aim for #4, like we are in Copper production, next year!! Pretty sure our quality of Marijuana will top world market, in Luapula we have that one they call Ulubangula.

    • If you read carefully, they are also talking about growing it, then issues to do with phytosanitary certifications will come into play, you don’t just easily export crop and animal products like you do with copper. Anyway it will be a good thing if value addition to it becomes the main goal not recreational and medicinal, our lubangula, mududu, chamba, wachingoni, might just come short.

    • Thats very progressive. Smokers dont have to hide in alley ways, corners and feel ashamed any more. No more feeling tense and paranoid. I would rather deal with a stoner than a drunk. If PF legalise the herb, they will stay in power for many years to come…lol

    • When weed is legal in zed, no one will worry about Euro bonds and all these chinese loans. We will all be high and chilled, HH included. We need to grow more food though, as we will be hungry all the time, on munchies.

    • Some of you were condemning myself and Peter Sinkamba when we supported the legalisation of marjeuana. I do believe even this spaka chap was one of those that said I was wrong to call for the legalization even though then I specifically stated we should legalize it for medicinal and export purposes, this I still stand on.

  2. Zambia when are joining the leaders in the legalization of the holy hemp? Zmbia should focus on industrial marijuana for cloth, medicine, paper etc.

  3. You know what I have enough land to grow cannabis, but the stiff silly laws Britain left are preventing me from doing that.
    We don’t have to legalise the recreational use, we could just legalise the growing for export. So many products used by women have pot in them, and we’ve kept buying them. Why not allow the cultivation of one of the many ingredients in these products and earn some forex?

  4. Way to go! And research shows that the herb is not abused in countries where it is legal. It is in places where it has been criminalized where big time smokers are. Lets legalize it ba Zambia in order to stop its abuse

    • @Saulosi, what research naiwe, and which countries, when there is only 1 country legalized, Uruguay.
      Zambians don’t need to smoke ibange, let them stay drunkards. What Sinkamba advocates its ZNS to grow enough to sell to Canadian pharmaceuticals.

    • Nostradamus

      Holland, where people freely smoke weed in coffee shops.
      Indeed there is no evidence of escalating drug use or crime in holland

    • @Spaka hooo ya true about Amsterdam, Holland. Red-light district.
      You win guys.
      But I will not help you smoke it.

  5. Expect Zambia to follow suit in about 5 years after the UK legalises weed. We are never trend setters but mere sheep that follow leaders in the west.

    Kudos to South Africa for bucking this trend by African nations to only follow what the west does. They are one of the first to legalise recreational weed..

    This can be a very valuable source of income.

  6. on my way to work a lil while ago, I so some people lined up at one of the stores/dispensary waiting for the store to open at 8
    it’s legal here as of midnight (10/17), each province has it’s own rules regarding sale and a few other restrictions….some provinces allow each household to grow a max of 4 plants, others 2 plants per household, others none don’t allow growing at all.
    most provinces follow alcohol policies in terms of age (19), there are a few that have set the age at 21
    there are also a few restrictions where people can smoke it, even places one can buy, each province has it’s own outlets
    now the next debate is what to do with those individuals who have a criminal record due to cannabis related convictions. that’s the political debate going on right now. I am paying…

  7. The hypocrisy of the West is up there with the devils. Two things will now happen: they will start selling cannabis products to producing societies like Zambia. The second is they will come and buy up huge tracts of land and grow cannabis right here for export back to their countries along with externalizing the earnings from under the flat noses of the producers. Go figure. Next is Coca…

  8. Legalize the herb for export It’s cultivation will present the down trodden n imporverished folks a fair shot being middle income earners .Zambia has vast fertile land .Big time foreign currency earner and above all many will have a good source of income.

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