How Canada legalising recreational marijuana could vault country to forefront of cannabis research

From October 17, Canadians will be able to light a cannabis cigarette with complete impunity. The North American nation will become only the second country, after Uruguay, to fully legalise marijuana use for recreational purposes.

The move will make good on a campaign promise from Justin Trudeau, who swept into the prime minister’s office in 2015 guaranteeing a new liberalised, socialised Canada. That means Canadians will be able to purchase, grow and smoke to their heart’s content, and the national medical community will have free rein to study the plant’s potential health benefits.

Currently, cannabis is only legal for medicinal purposes, and citizens need a prescription to buy it from a handful of licensed sellers; however, the reality is far from that. Walk down any commercial street in Vancouver or Toronto, and you’ll be hard pressed not to pass the storefront of a cannabis dispensary that will sell you various types of weed with no questions asked.

Vancouver’s University of British Columbia (UBC) welcomed in the new era recently by announcing its first ever professorship of cannabis science. The goal is to investigate the potential role that cannabis-based research could play in managing the opioid crisis and addictive disorders.

As research grants and money flow into Canada’s medical marijuana community, many believe it will only be a matter of time before the country becomes the world leader in cannabis research.

In Hong Kong, the use and sale of cannabis is banned under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, which came into effect in 1969. While seizures and use among teens have been reportedly on the rise recently, convictions for serious drug offences in Hong Kong have been falling steadily since 2008.