C<\/span>alifornia\u2019s long march towards marijuana legalization has been characterized mostly as an economic boon. Legal cannabis sales to all adults 21 and over means a rapid expansion to an already huge $7 billion legal cannabis market \u2014 and yet another boom for the state that would be the world\u2019s sixth-largest economy, were it an independent nation.<\/p>\n An independent nation like Canada, where the world\u2019s biggest marijuana companies are all headquartered, so positioned because Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s promise to legalize cannabis is on schedule to be fulfilled this summer.<\/p>\n But ending the drug war in both California and Canada also has a social justice angle. For the thousands of people denied jobs, housing, and other benefits because of marijuana convictions, legalization means a return to normal.\u00a0Since Election Day 2016, more than 4,500 former \u201coffenders\u201d have petitioned California courts to have their records wiped, their parole lifted<\/a> \u2014 and, in some case, to be let out of prison early. As they should, as this was part of the deal all along.<\/p>\n \u201cWe worked to help create a legalized and regulated process for legal marijuana, but we also wanted to make sure we could help \u2014 some way, somehow \u2014 repair the damages of marijuana prohibition,\u201d as Eunisses Hernandez, a policy coordinator at the Drug Policy Alliance, an early and key supporter of Prop. 64, told the\u00a0Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n Aside from climate, diversity and the existence of 49 other states and a prohibitionist federal government, the major difference between Canada<\/a> and California is that legalization came in Canada via a government push and not a voter initiative. Having Trudeau\u2019s government recognize and license medical marijuana operations has been great for business \u2014 but what about the social justice, and the Canadians with cannabis crimes on their records?<\/p>\n Trudeau sees them and recognizes this is an issue, and promises that he\u2019ll address it. Sometime. Eventually \u2014 after legalization happens first.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the law is changed, we will of course reflect on fairness, and what is responsible moving forward,\u201d Trudeau said during a news conference in London, Ontario, where he spoke at a packed town-hall-style meeting on Jan. 12, according to the London Free Press.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cWe know that the current legislation is hurting Canadians and criminalizing Canadians who it perhaps shouldn\u2019t be, but that is an engagement we will take once we have a legalized and controlled regime in place, not before,\u201d Trudeau told reporters, when asked directly about an \u201camnesty program\u201d for cannabis offenses, the newspaper reported.<\/p>\n While far less punitive than America, Canada\u2019s justice system has still been unjust to drug offenders.<\/p>\n Medical marijuana has been available from companies licensed by Health Canada for several years, and beginning July 1, a network of stores selling to adults 21 and over will open to adults. In the meantime, in the country\u2019s largest cities, businesses have openly broken the law, selling marijuana to adults with the full knowledge of police, lawmakers and the media.<\/p>\n For a time, life had settled into a predictable pattern: a pot shop would open, a pot shop would be raided<\/a>. That same shop would re-open, a raid would come.<\/p>\n Trudeau has been promising to \u201ctake steps to look at what we can do for those folks who have criminal records for something that will no longer be criminal\u201d in a \u201cthoughtful way\u201d since last year. If that sounds vague, it is \u2014 but as the Global News reported,<\/a>\u00a0the politician\u2019s ambiguity isn\u2019t all Trudeau\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n Criminal records are kept by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which maintains a national database. As the News noted, \u201cin theory, [Trudeau] should be able to erase Canadians\u2019 records for marijuana possession just by telling the programmers to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not quite so easy on the paper-pushers as that. Marijuana-related offenses are sometimes classified in the same category as offenses for other drugs. Sometimes the police note what the drug was \u2014 and sometimes they don\u2019t. Someone busted with a small amount of pot can be docked with a marijuana-specific crime \u2014 or a second violation that\u2019s a \u201cgeneric\u201d drug-related offense.<\/p>\n \u201cThat means that erasing marijuana possession (or trafficking) records could turn into a painstaking, manual process, involving searches in court and police archives across the country,\u201d the News reported.<\/p>\n This sounds mostly like a bureaucratic problem, something that the record-keepers should recognize and fix. It\u2019s also a key component of legalization, and one Canada needs to make sure it includes sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> do you think Canada should give amnesty to cannabis offenders?<\/p>\n The post Canada Will Consider Releasing Pot Prisoners After Legalization<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says amnesty for cannabis \u201coffenders\u201d might come after Canada\u2019s legal retail market launches this summer. California\u2019s long march towards marijuana legalization has been characterized mostly as an economic boon. Legal cannabis sales to all adults 21 and over means a rapid expansion to anContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[148,34,50,80,3100,81,319],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22951"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22952,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22951\/revisions\/22952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Canada Will Consider Releasing Pot Prisoners After Legalization<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"