Legalizing cannabis: CAMH submission to the Task Force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation

Toronto, September 12, 2016 – Earlier this year the federal government set up a task force to make recommendations on a framework for legalizing and regulating cannabis. Dr. Catherine Zahn, CAMH’s President and CEO, is one of its nine members. In June the task force released a discussion paper and launched consultations consisting of roundtables with provincial governments, experts, and stakeholders, and a call for written submissions and feedback from interested organizations and individuals.

CAMH experts participated in the Toronto roundtable on August 23. We also made recommendations to the Task Force via a brief written submission that focuses on specific questions from the government’s discussion paper – particularly those on minimizing harms of use and designing an appropriate distribution system. Our submission expands on some of the principles put forward in our Cannabis Policy Framework two years ago, laying out more concrete proposals for a minimum legal age for purchasing and consuming regulated cannabis, a framework for addressing and preventing cannabis-impaired driving, and more.

The Task Force will report back to the federal government with recommendations in November. In the meantime CAMH will continue to work with both the federal and provincial governments to lay the foundation of a health-focused, non-commercial approach to cannabis.