Criminal defence lawyer Sarah Leamon swung by Expert Joints LIVE! on Oct. 18, the day after legalization, to chat with Craig Ex and answer your 5 burning questions about cannabis legalization.
1. Where will people be able to purchase legal cannabis?
In BC, there’s only one legal cannabis store out in Kamloops, so unless you go all the way there, Sarah Leamon says:
“The only place that you can get legal cannabis is online right now”.
Craig brings up a very good point when he says, “So depending on where you get it, the weed that you’re smoking might not be legal”.
How confusing is that?
On top of that, if you do purchase online, be prepared to wait a few days for your legal cannabis to come in the mail, too. Funny that the “legal weed” is so much harder to access than the “black market cannabis”!
2. What will people be able to purchase?
As Sarah Leamon says:
“You can have fresh cannabis, you can have dried cannabis, you can have cannabis seeds, plants, and oil… and that’s about it”.
She tells Craig that the black market will continue thriving unless the price and quality of legal cannabis is right for consumers.
But extracts, edibles, and topicals are at least a year away, so legalization doesn’t really help the people that depend on those products although there is a silver lining to all of that- people are allowed to make their own and they can share them with their friends (as long as they are over the legal age to consume cannabis)- but Sarah is quick to warn people that they aren’t allowed to sell their homemade products because that’s still illegal.
3. How much cannabis can you have?
Sarah Leamon says:
“A person is allowed to possess up to 30 grams of dried cannabis or its equivalent”.
What’s the equivalent?
- 5 grams of fresh cannabis
- 15 grams of edible product
- 70 grams of liquid concentrate
- 1 cannabis seed
- 0.25 grams of concentrates (solid or liquid)
There’s also a distinction between a flowering cannabis plant and one that’s in its vegetative state.
Sarah says, “there are all these charts in the Cannabis Act and it’s really confusing and difficult to familiarize yourself with but everyone’s trying to catch up right now”. That includes lawyers and police officers.
4. Who can people smoke their cannabis with?
Sarah Leamon says:
“You can smoke with anybody who’s over the age of majority”.
That’s either 18 or 19 depending on the province or territory you live in, although Quebec will raise the age of majority to 21 as soon as possible.
5. Where will people be able to smoke their cannabis?
The golden rule, according to Sarah Leamon, is:
“Wherever you can’t smoke a cigarette, you also can’t smoke cannabis”.
That means anywhere children might reasonably expected to be present (such as parks, playgrounds, and schools). You also can’t smoke cannabis at work or at healthcare facilities- although you can smoke cannabis in the smoking section at the Vancouver International Airport!
For more information, check out Sarah Leamon’s article “Ask a Lawyer: 5 Burning Questions Answered for Cannabis Users in BC” on Cannabis Life Network here.