With legal recreational pot, Canada leads way into uncharted territory

Canada’s capital city is known for being sleepy, sometimes stodgy. “The city fun forgot” is a familiar crack. Counterfactual as that may be, Ottawa is still not exactly used to being on the cutting edge.

But cutting edge is exactly where it finds itself, after Canada’s Senate voted to legalize the recreational use of cannabis nationwide, which comes into force on Oct. 17.

In doing so Canada has moved to the forefront of global drug policy. In open breach of the United Nations conventions on drugs, it has clearly stated that in principle, it does not believe that prohibition of marijuana serves the public good, after nearly 100 years of signing laws to the contrary. The stakes are high, bringing more momentum to the drug reform movement, in an era in which the public’s opinion about marijuana is increasingly out of step with the global policies their leaders embrace.

Polling shows the nation is ready for it, with three-quarters saying they support Canada’s move to become the first major industrialized nation to legalize

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