Rielle Capler is a PhD candidate at UBC, and she says that rushing the legislation for cannabis legalization would be a mistake. āThey first need to have a piece of legislation thatās drafted that then has to go through Parliament to get passed. Itās not that they came into power and had that legislation drafted already,ā Capler said.
Her view is that one year is actually aĀ short amount of time for the objective that is trying to be accomplished. According to Capler, āI think what should be kept in mind is that to have a good piece of legislation ā a year isnāt a long time for that. It is quite ambitious and impressive that theyāre going for that.ā
Last week on 4/20, the federal government made the announcement that legislation concerning cannabis legalization would be drafted and ready by Spring of 2017. NDP Leader Tom Mulcair was highly critical of the Liberals after this announcement was made. āFor more than three years they promised to legalize marijuana. They wonāt even decriminalize something that could have been done overnight,ā Mulcair said.
Activists in the cannabis community are growing impatient with legalization, and some such as Freddie Pritchard, are warning that once the legislation is finished, Canada still wonāt have legalization in the truest sense of the term.