Premier Christy Clark said she is ready to “endorse and allow” federal plans to legalize cannabis in Canada.
“We’re happy to work with whatever the federal government decides on that,” said Clark, in an interview with Global. “You know they were really clear—and it was a big election issue in B.C.—about their position on this. And so we’re prepared to move forward on it, and I know lots of ideas about how we might regulate it.”
Clark said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Dec. 4 throne speech reassured her that there would be strict control over cannabis and that, similar to alcohol, the government needs to ensure it isn’t able to be accessed by youth.
“There needs to be control over this substance, that we need to make sure that young people whose brains are growing, will not be allowed unfettered access to getting marijuana,” Clark said.
The comments are the most Clark has ever offered into the provincial government’s opinion on the legalization and regulation of recreational cannabis.