Nelson Police will continue to take enforcement action if they find businesses working outside guidelines set out by the courts.

Several cannabis dispensaries in Nanaimo were recently raided by RCMP, causing residents of Nelson — widely referred to as Canada’s “pot capital" — to wonder if similar action may be taken here on the road to legalization.

With new dispensaries popping up all the time, and a promise of cannabis legalization from Justin Trudeau, there is a lot of confusion surrounding legally accessible cannabis.

What these new laws will entail, how they will be enforced and to what level is currently unknown.

However, both operators and law enforcement have their ideas about how the process will evolve over the next year.

British Columbia may be known for its bud now, but Canada has had a complicated relationship with marijuana over the years. A synopsis:

1922

Emily Murphy, an iconic early feminist and Canada's first female judge, published "The Black Candle," a 400-page screed against drug use and the threat of the "black and yellow races." In the book, Murphy quotes a police chief saying that pot smokers "become raving maniacs and are liable to kill or indulge in any form of violence to other persons, using the most savage methods of cruelty without, as said before, any sense of moral responsibility."

1923

Three days before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government delivered its Throne speech - and with it the first formal indication of the Liberals intention to legalize marijuana for recreational use - the Mounties were busting down the doors of three pot shops in Nanaimo, B.C.

RCMP Supt. Mark Fisher said the force was "compelled" to raid the shops after a grandmother complained about her 15-year-old granddaughter allegedly buying weed from an illegal storefront.

One of the stores remains defiant, denying the allegations and reopening the following day.

Trees spokesman Alex Robb said the raids "fly in the face of public opinion, and the stance of our newly elected federal government."

"We will legalize, regulate and restrict access to marijuana."

This was one of Justin Trudeau's campaign promises and a stance, as poll after poll confirms, that is widely supported by Canadians.

This promise was once again repeated in last week's Speech from the Throne, entitled, interestingly enough, "Making real change happen."

The government, however, appears to be moving slowly on this particular pledge.

During the campaign, Trudeau promised to create a federal/provincial/territorial task force and to consult widely with public health officials and law enforcement in designing a regime for regulating the production and sale of marijuana.

"Parliament shall be no exception".

But the speech did not outline to what extent the government is willing to get involved - Trudeau has said in the past that he intends to pull fighter jets from the ISIS mission, focusing instead on training soldiers on the ground. Instead, the government pledged to carry out its agenda "while pursuing a fiscal plan that is responsible, transparent and suited to challenging economic times".

Gov. Gen. David Johnston will read the throne speech in the Senate chamber, according to tradition.

Justin Trudeau, newly-minted Prime Minister of Canada and self-professed dabbler in pot, announced earlier this month that his Liberal Party would move ahead with plans to legalize marijuana as early as 2016. Ending prohibition was part of the party platform going into the October election and is a clear break from ex-PM Stephen Harper, who claimed (with a straight face) that marijuana was "infinitely worse" than tobacco.

Marijuana legalization's momentum continued last week, albeit outside of the United States.

The highly controversial drug, which has harnessed the spotlight in the United States and forced presidential candidates to step out of their comfort zones during national debates, is making headlines north of the border in Canada, where lawmakers are pushing ever closer to legalizing the drug for recreational purposes.

Canada moves toward legalization
As it stands now, marijuana is legal across Canada for medicinal or industrial purposes as long as you have a government-issued license. Recreational marijuana is also acceptable in some cities, but the laws governing recreational marijuana aren't universal across the vast expanse of Canada.

As an old hippy myself, I’m all in favour of legalising dagga, the mind-altering weed that grows widely – and wildly – in South Africa. Also known as cannabis, marijuana or pot, the drug has research to support efficacy and safety of compounds it contains for pain control,  neurological diseases such as epilepsy, and to treat cachexia, a wasting syndrome in cancer, HIV/Aids and TB patients. In a recent post on Biznews, High times for dagga as medicine: fears go up in smoke!, I looked at the debate on dagga as one way to destroy the illegal market, and maximise benefits and minimise harms from medicinal and recreational use.

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