By Ava Franks
Beginning October 17, Canadian proponents of legalization celebrated as Canada announced the official legalization of recreational marijuana. Before the Cannabis Act, marijuana was only legal for medical purposes. However, the drug can now be sold in government owned private boutiques and shops, as well as grown domestically. Whether this act will leave a positive impact on Canada’s economy and population health is debatable, and this debate is the reason many states and countries have not made the same decisions.
A U.S. government official, who asked to remain anonymous, spoke to The Paw Print on the effects they thought the legalization would have on future drug abuse in Canada. Considering marijuana is a gateway drug, there are speculations that the legalization of this drug will lead to other drug abuse within the country. “I think [the legalization of marijuana is] dangerous. I believe that the use of marijuana will go up amongst a wider range of age groups. I imagine there will be other drug use as well.”
Since marijuana will be priced to be competitive with the black market, Canada’s government can expect to see a rise in tax revenue once the system in underway. However, some say that the cost of health care could even out Canada’s profit from this act in the long run.
“As we’ve seen with tobacco sales the health consequences of smoking–which I believe have been shown to show up in marijuana smoke as well–will also have an effect on health further down the road,” the U.S. official said. “Initially, I think they’re going to find a lot more money but they’re going to end up paying more for [the] medical [consequences].”
Not only will this new law affect Canada’s economy, it’s going to affect the black market, the original vendors of marijuana. Since black market substances are not regulated, there is always a risk of not receiving what what’s paid for. This new opportunity to buy marijuana as a regulated product of the government might turn people away from the black market.
“Ultimately people are going to want to buy from distributors and regulated entities rather than from the black market and we’ll see black market production drop but that’s only if the government can weed out the black market sales from bleeding into regulated sales. In the United States the regulated markets for marijuana have seen bleed over from unregulated growers trying to gain money.”
It’s unsure how much the legalization of recreational marijuana is going to affect black market sales, but the official believed, “the unregulated growers will shrink tremendously.”
