Cabinet plans to spend more than $1 million on its statutory review of legal marijuana with a final report due next year, records obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter show.
Parliament, in voting to legalize recreational cannabis in 2018, mandated that the impact of the decision be investigated within five years.
“The anticipated incremental costs associated with the panel’s work on the legislative review of the Cannabis Act are estimated to be $1.03 million,” the Department of Health said in a submission to the Senate national finance committee.
As yet, no deadline was set for a final report, but the Cannabis Act requires that the minister of health table a report in both houses of Parliament no later than 18 months after the start of the review.
In a preliminary submission on Oct. 10, the expert panel in charge of putting together the report acknowledged that legalization of marijuana did not eliminate illegal drug dealing as intended.
“Many public safety stakeholders were concerned about the continued involvement of organized crime and criminal networks in illicit cannabis production and sale,” the “Legislative Review of the Cannabis Act: What We Heard Report” reads. “This includes through unauthorized retail stores.”
The expert panel said legalization had also caused a “rising trend” in marijuana use, with up to 40 percent of young adults using it.
“Among this age group 10 percent report daily or almost daily use,” the panel said in its report, adding that children as young as 14 seem to have easy access to marijuana.
“Concerns were raised prior to the implementation of the Act about the effect that legalization would have on the public perception of cannabis,” it said. “The most recent data available indicates about half of respondents, 51 percent, felt regular cannabis smoking was either somewhat or completely socially acceptable.”
The five-member panel includes former Trudeau Foundation CEO Morris Rosenberg, Queen’s University Department of Psychiatry professor Oyedeji Ayonrinde, University of Montréal Department of Psychiatry professor Patricia Conrod, University of Toronto Department of Family Medicine professor Peter Selby, and Toronto criminal lawyer Lynda Levesque.
Other federal research has found that post-secondary students are three times more likely to smoke cannabis than cigarettes.
“Problematic substance use poses a risk to the health and safety of postsecondary students across Canada,” said the Postsecondary Education Alcohol and Drug Use Survey by the Public Health Agency.
Forty-eight percent of all university and college students polled in 2019 had used cannabis at least once that year and 33 percent used the drug monthly. Eight percent were daily cannabis smokers while 2 percent smoked cigarettes every day.
