Not to ruin your buzz, pot fans, but as Canada celebrated legal recreational cannabis on Wednesday, the incoming Quebec government said they will move forward on several anti-pot measures.
The Coalition Avenir Quebec had previously promised to raise the legal age to buy marijuana products from 18 to 21.
They’ve also said they intend on banning smoking from all public places in Quebec. However, it’s not clear when those changes might come into effect. The CAQ does not formally take over the government until Thursday, when the new cabinet is sworn in.
Bill 157 was passed in June by the Liberal government that was defeated by the CAQ earlier this month. That bill was in response to the federal law legalizing cannabis throughout Canada and outlined the rules for who could legally grow, sell and purchase those products.
On Wednesday, CAQ MNA Sonia Lebel said that while Bill 157 has officially gone into effect, that won’t stop the new government from modifying the rules. She declined to give an exact timeline for when a new bill might be introduced but said it would be “as fast as possible.”
“You’re telling me because it’s happening that we should stop and not do anything? That’s not the way we work,” she said. “We announced the fact we thought it was best for everybody that the age of legal consumption be set at 21. This is a strong message we want to send. There’s going to be a transition period because we can’t just draw a bill right now and adopt it. We have to get the government in place.”
The CAQ describes the current system in place as “chaos,” because the rules on where people can consume this legal cannabis vary from city to city.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expressed concern over the CAQ's plan to raise the legal age, suggesting it would help organized crime.
