Canadians only now starting to get heads around pot legalization, forum told
TORONTO — Canada’s provinces, municipalities and Canadians themselves are only now really starting to come to grips with the pending legalization of marijuana, a forum heard Monday.
Former justice minister Anne McLellan, who headed a national task force on the issue, said while a majority of people are in favour of legal pot, most don’t understand what that means. As a result, she said, people are now posing tough questions about what a legalized-cannabis world will look like.
“People are just starting to understand psychologically what this means — the transformation — moving from what has heretofore been a prohibited substance to legalization and regulation,” McLellan said.
The last time something similar occurred was in the 1920s and 1930s when Prohibition ended, she said, so we don’t have a lot of current experience to lean on.