When did Canada legalise cannabis?

Canada legalised recreational cannabis use on October 17, 2018 when the federal Cannabis Act, S.C. 2018, c. 16 came into force. The Act had received royal assent on June 21, 2018 with Justin Trudeau's Liberal majority government's support. Canada was the second country in the world to legalise recreational cannabis nationally (after Uruguay in December 2013) and the first G7 country to do so. The Act ended more than 90 years of cannabis prohibition (cannabis had been included in the Schedule of Restricted Drugs under the Opium and Narcotic Drug Act of 1923).

The Cannabis Act's framework included: federal authority over the legal production, distribution, and sale of cannabis; provincial authority over retail, distribution within the province, and minimum age (most provinces set the age at 19, except Alberta and Quebec at 18); permission for adults to possess up to 30 grams of dried cannabis in public; permission to grow up to 4 plants per household for personal use (with some provinces banning home growing); and a regulatory framework administered by Health Canada. The federal Cannabis Regulations issued under the Act provided detailed operational rules for licence holders.

The Liberal government's promise to legalise cannabis had been a central 2015 election commitment. The Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation was established on June 30, 2016 with former Justice Minister Anne McLellan as chair. Its December 13, 2016 report ('A Framework for the Legalization and Regulation of Cannabis in Canada') made 80 recommendations that shaped the Cannabis Act. Bill C-45 (the Cannabis Act) was tabled on April 13, 2017 and passed the House of Commons on November 27, 2017. The Senate's Conservative minority delayed passage until the bill received royal assent on June 21, 2018, with the October 17, 2018 effective date set to give provinces and territories implementation time.

Provincial implementation has varied. Ontario and Alberta moved to private retail; Quebec, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and others used a mix of public and private retail. Saskatchewan, the first province to fully privatise retail, issued only a limited number of cannabis store licences. Cannabis edibles (October 17, 2019), extracts, and topicals were subsequently legalised. The federal Cannabis Tracking and Licensing System monitors the supply chain. Federal cannabis revenues were about 8 billion dollars in 2024. Canada's experience has been studied by other countries considering legalisation, including Germany (which legalised in April 2024), Malta, and several US states. Cannabis research, particularly for medical and harm-reduction purposes, has expanded under the post-2018 framework. Convictions for minor cannabis offences (simple possession) can be expunged under the Expungement of Historically Unjust Convictions Act of 2018.