The Cannabis Act came into action. Were there any concerns with how this was handled?
[Transcribed] In this scenario, we are asked to assess how the legalization of marijuana was carried out in Canada in terms of it being left to handle Downstream provincially by the various provincial guidelines to happen on their own. So I think there are several important things to address in this scenario firstly the legalization of weed itself and the impact that has had on Canada. Secondly if
Provincially was the luck correct level to let the handling of the exact specifics of this policy coming into action. If it should have never actually was and thirdly the problems that we are still facing with regard to marijuana and its legalization in Canada. So first of all to get into the legalization of marijuana in Canada, I personally believe that this is something that should have been done and I think it was a great move for the federal government to an hour.
This law marijuana has many medical benefits as we've seen through numerous studies and is in help to it isn't shown to help with both physical and mental disabilities physical and mental illness throughout the years. I think legalizing it is a great way to increase people's access to another therapeutic treatment. Secondly, I think that
the legalization of marijuana is something that's helpful because we do have people who are locked away for small crimes to do with marijuana and it is a drug that has not been shown to increase illegal activity. It is actually one of these safer drugs that we know of the people used recreationally without having long-term side effects on people. It's nothing compared to alcohol and tobacco. So I think the legalization overall was a good choice when it comes to
Weber how it was handled it was left for the downstream provincial jurisdictions to show how it was carried out and I personally don't think that this was the best choice there's inconsistencies in how people can access marijuana in each province. And I think this leaves people still going to Illegal methods to buy marijuana whether this be because of the limited dispensing options such as in our province of Nova, Scotia you are able to
Buy marijuana at the NSL see stores, which is great. I think it's a convenient location most communities have a liquor store. However, not all of these stores were turned into dispensaries as well, which I think creates unequal access and it's more likely that the access to these dispensaries is in more populated and perhaps affluent areas, which then still is leaving a
Gap in who is accessing marijuana legally and illegally, so if you are to live in a area that is known to be of lower socioeconomic status or a less populated place which are people who tend to tend to to be in the past on disproportionately targeted for marijuana related offenses. It's likely these people are still purchasing marijuana illegally because of the disproportionate locations that we're seeing dispensaries pop up in nose.
Gosha, so I believe that in order for this legalization process has been made better. There should've been federal guidelines that allowed the dispensaries to be more evenly and equally distributed. Of course, there's going to be more services in populated areas, but I think this just again goes into how
There is an unequal allocation of resources and marijuana. Although is used recreationally can be seen as a therapeutic tool. So this is just one more perhaps inequality in our system that is targeting people in rural communities and people of lower socioeconomic status as well. In addition to the inequality in locations. Marijuana dispensaries can be quite expensive compared to
What people pay by getting their marijuana illegally, so people still may be inclined to purchase legally, even though there is legal means to purchase it. So I do believe that the really legalization of marijuana is a great step in our country. However, I think that God line should be should have a tape second look taken out them at the federal level to more evenly distribute and regulate the sale of marijuana.