Key recommendations of the federal task force on cannabis legalization

OTTAWA — Key recommendations of the federal task force on legalization and regulation of cannabis, which released its final report Tuesday:

— Set a national minimum age of purchase of 18, allowing provinces and territories to harmonize it with their minimum age for buying alcohol.

— Apply comprehensive restrictions to advertising and promotion of cannabis and related merchandise.

— Require plain packaging for cannabis products.

— Prohibit any product deemed to be “appealing to children,” including ones that resemble familiar food items and those packaged to look like candy.

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— Set a maximum amount of THC — the active ingredient in cannabis — per serving and per product.

— Prohibit mixed products, for example cannabis-infused alcoholic beverages or cannabis products with tobacco, nicotine or caffeine.

— Introduce public education strategies to inform Canadians about cannabis risks. 

— Use revenue from cannabis as a source of funding for administration, education, prevention, research, enforcement and treatment. 

— Implement a “seed-to-sale” tracking system to prevent diversion and enable product recalls.

— Allow provinces and territories to regulate wholesale distribution of cannabis, and permit provinces and territories, in close collaboration with municipalities, to regulate retail sales.

— Avoid co-location of alcohol or tobacco and cannabis sales, wherever possible.

— Allow dedicated storefronts with well-trained, knowledgeable staff, located appropriate distances from schools, community centres and public parks.

— Permit a direct-to-consumer mail-order system.

— Allow personal cultivation for non-medical purposes with a limit of four plants per residence and a maximum plant height of 100 centimetres. 

— Maintain criminal offences for illicit production, trafficking, import and export.

— Implement administrative penalties (with flexibility to enforce more serious penalties) for contraventions of licensing rules on production, distribution, sale.

— Extend current restrictions on public smoking of tobacco products to the smoking of cannabis products and to cannabis vaping products.

— Inform the public about the dangers of cannabis-impaired driving, with special emphasis on youth.

— Invest in research to better link THC levels with impairment and crash risk.

— Maintain a separate medical access framework to support patients.

(Source: “A Framework for the Legalization and Regulation of Cannabis in Canada”)

The Canadian Press