With a Liberal majority government in place, Prime Minister Trudeau and his cabinet have been steamrolling over any potential hurdles that might slow the process of marijuana legalization. But now, CBC News is reporting on a potential bump in the road which could delay the July 2018 deadline, and that is the Senate.
Before the Christmas break, the House of Commons is expected to send Bill C-45 to senators who will undoubtedly go through the legislation with a fine-tooth comb.
“The deadline is a political deadline,” said Sen. André Pratte. “It’s not a court that imposed that deadline. It’s the government that set that deadline. We have to take it into account but we also have to do our job seriously and that’s what we’ll do.”
Although the Senate is an independent body in charge of considering the legislation based on its functionality as opposed to its social implications, if senators take too long in their deliberation or even send the bill back for changes, legalization day could be delayed for Canadians.
“Senators aren’t elected, they’re appointed,” said Matt Maurer, chair of the Cannabis Law Group at Minden Gross, in an interview with Continue reading at Marijuana.com