Senate passes marijuana legalization bill on second reading
Posted March 22, 2018 3:47 pm.
Last Updated March 22, 2018 7:18 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) – The federal bill to legalize marijuana has passed a vital vote in the Senate, which had threatened to scuttle the whole legalization plan.
Despite fears of the bill falling in this vote, the legislation passed second reading 44-29, meaning it will now be sent to several committees for study.
The head of the Independent Senators Yuen Pau Woo is thriller with the result. “I’d rather call this a celebration,” he says.
Usually second readings are rubber stamped, but Conservatives opposed the bill and it wasn’t clear if there would be enough support to pass it since many senators were away on business. Some had to fly back just for the vote.
The leader of the government in the Senate, Peter Harder says he’s pleased with the outcome. “I always breathe a sigh of relief when the Senate acts responsibly and advances legislation.”
Conservative Senator Don Plett wanted to vote down the bill but says he’ll now try to make changes at committee “Do the best job we can at amending a very, very flawed piece of legislation, and hopefully we can fix it.”
Meanwhile, Senate Conservative Leader Larry Smith says he’ll also focus efforts on making amendments. “We’re going to work very hard to participate in trying to improve a bill with a lot of holes in it.”
If the vote had failed the legislation would die, meaning the legalization plan would have to be completely restarted.
The approval comes after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reminded the senators that his government was elected on a promise to legalize recreational marijuana.
That was seen as a subtle warning that they should not attempt to thwart the will of Canadians or the government they elected.
Earlier in the day, Trudeau had said the criminal cannabis regime has not protected Canadian children, who are among the highest under-age users of marijuana in developed countries, and has put up to $7 billion every year in the pockets of organized crime.
A final vote is expected in June and full legalization won’t happen until August at the earliest.
