Where Is Marijuana Legal? Canada's Liberal Government To Announce Cannabis Legalization By Next Month

In keeping up with his promise of legalizing marijuana that was seen as one of the primary reasons for the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party's win in 2015, the government will announce the legislation next month. The legislation will legalize marijuana in Canada by July 1, 2018, CBC News reported Sunday.

To ensure that Canada's marijuana supply is safe and secure and that Ottawa will license producers, the federal government will take the responsibility. The provincial governments will decide how the marijuana is distributed, sold and will set the price, according to CBC.

Read: New Mexico To Decriminalize Weed

In December last year, Trudeau said he was not legalizing marijuana to please those who smoke it, rather he wanted the law not to be broken because of it or that criminal organizations should not profit from it. “People are right now breaking the law,” Trudeau told the Toronto Star. “We haven’t changed the laws. We haven’t legalized it yet. Yes, we got a clear mandate to do that. We’ve said we will. We’ve said we’re going to do it to protect our kids and to keep the money out of the pockets of criminals."

The spread of storefront dispensaries in Toronto has clearly made the prime minister worried. “It’s a situation that is frustrating and I can understand people’s frustration on this,” Trudeau said, according to the Star.

In a summit in Toronto last year, Trudeau said that he had two guiding principles in his initiative to legalize pot that focused on reducing harm as opposed to maximizing benefits — to cut down on underage access to marijuana and to reduce criminal activities that have surrounded the illegal marijuana trade. "I have no doubt that Canadians and entrepreneurs will be tremendously innovative in finding ways to create positive economic benefits from the legalization and control of marijuana, but our focus is on protecting kids and protecting our streets," Trudeau said, according to the Time.