Raúl Ricardo already used cannabis recreationally, so when it was legalised federally in 2018, it “just made sense” to switch to Canada’s legal market.
“It had certain standards – you weren’t getting something sprayed with Raid,” he says. Reliability and convenience were added incentives, “you no longer had to go through some shady dealer.”
Since legalisation, adults can walk into a licensed retailer or government-owned store, present their ID, and purchase cannabis products ranging from dried cannabis to edibles and infused beverages.
Canada’s model is what the government calls a “public health approach”, prioritising the minimisation of harms associated with cannabis use. Regulations vary between provinces, but all products use plain packaging containing health warnings and accurate information about its levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis) and cannabidiol (CBD, which doesn’t produce a “high” like THC but has potential benefits for anxiety, pain, and sleep).
On the eve of the Australian federal election and with the looming possibility of a minority government, some pro-legalisation advocates are hoping the political tide for reform might be coming in.
They point to strong evidence from Canada and elsewhere, along with growing community support (in 2022-23, 80 per cent of Australians believed cannabis possession should be decriminalised and 45 per cent that it should be legalised, according to National Drug Household Survey data).
Meanwhile, a softening of cannabis-related drug possession charges in states including New South Wales in the years since medical cannabis was legalised nationally may indicate a creeping appetite for change that reformers could turn into a bargaining chip for a minority Labor government relying on support from the Greens and independents.
In advance of Saturday’s federal election, the Australian Greens renewed their pledge to legalise recreational cannabis.
“Our party is committed to pushing for this reform if there is a minority government,” says Greens Senator David Shoebridge.
When the party’s Legalising Cannabis Bill was taken to a vote last November, Labor joined forces with the Coalition to vote it down. The major parties say they only support legal cannabis for medical purposes. Labor did not respond to a request for comment by The Citizen and the Liberal party declined to comment.
Yet Labor’s how-to-vote card for the senate in Victoria preferences the single-issue Legalise Cannabis Party second, despite its rejection of the Green’s bill last year.
The Victorian Labor government has also long said it is open to discussing decriminalising cannabis use. Last month, a parliamentary committee considering the potential for decriminalising the drug for personal use in Victoria, drawing on the ACT’s experience of decriminalisation in 2020.
The appetite for reform among independent MPs with a strong chance of re-election is less clear. Teal member for Kew Dr Monique Ryan, for example, advocated in favour of medicinal cannabis legislation as far back as 2016 but did not respond to an inquiry about her position on recreational cannabis laws before deadline.
If the issue did leap to the top of the Australian political agenda, what lessons are there from countries including Canada, with a similar federal style of government, that has made the move to legal recreational use?
How did Canadian reform get up and how might this translate here?
After the legalisation of medicinal cannabis use in Canada back in 1999, the drug was more “familiar and acceptable” by the time Justin Trudeau chose to make it one of his main issues, says Michael Armstrong, an associate professor at Brock University who studies the economics of Canada’s regulated cannabis market.
Initially, medical experts said legalising could send the message that cannabis use wasn’t harmful. This is the same position taken by the Australian Medical Association (AMA) outlined in their 2023 submission opposing the Greens’ bill.
Canadian addiction and mental health expert Jean-François Crépault says this position is inconsistent with the evidence on harm-minimisation. Although cannabis isn’t risk-free, health harms are not contained by making it illegal, and may create further social harms, argues the senior policy analyst at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Canada, who published an influential proposal for a public health approach to legalising cannabis back in 2014.
Crépault points to examples including the way criminalisation has its own impacts on health and wellbeing, such as difficulty for those with drug possession convictions getting a job. He also points to evidence of criminalisation’s unequal application across different communities.
“The application of the law by law-enforcement can be quite racialised,” he says.
In its submission opposing the Greens bill, the AMA said while it does not support recreational cannabis legalisation, it does support decriminalising cannabis for personal use to “reduce the disproportionate rates of incarceration for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people”.
How effective is the Canadian model so far?
Canada’s legal cannabis market has largely replaced the illicit market.
In 2024, over 70 per cent of Canadians who used cannabis in the last 12 months bought it legally, according to Statistics Canada.
Crépault says prevalence of use appears steady among young people and adolescents. Where there has been an increase in use is among people in their 50s and 60s. Following legalisation, past-three-month cannabis consumption rose from 8.8 per cent in 2018 to 14 per cent in 2019, according to Health Canada research. However, this could be attributed to legalisation and normalisation of cannabis, as well as Baby Boomers entering older adulthood, who may bring with them more tolerant views and prior cannabis experience.
Tax revenue from cannabis legalisation is often touted as a major success story in Canada as it bolsters the coffers for public spending by redirecting funds away from the black economy.
During the 2023-24 financial year, Canadian consumers spent about $CAD 5.8 billion ($6.4 billion) on recreational cannabis from licensed stores, of which the federal and provincial governments received an estimated $CAD 2.2 billion ($2.4 billion.)
In Australia, legal recreational cannabis could generate $700 million annually according to Parliamentary Budget Office costings produced for the Australian Greens.
The data on community safety in Canada is less clear. Crépault says there are still unknowns regarding the impact of legalisation on impaired driving generally, which had already experienced an increase before legalisation and has continued to rise.
He says the issue is complex because THC can linger in someone’s system long after potential impairment has occurred, and unlike with alcohol, THC levels do not seem to correlate with how impaired someone is.
(This is reflected in recent law change in Victoria which protects medicinal cannabis users from automatic license fines if found to have the drug in their system.)
Driving directly after cannabis use has actually declined since 2018, according to Statistics Canada, and cannabis is not the main impairing drug.
Importantly, Canada has developed education initiatives alongside the legislation. Publicly available tools such as Lower-Risk Use Cannabis Guidelines help people who use cannabis make informed decisions about their health, such as recommending not driving until six to eight hours after using cannabis. Crépault says he believes people have become “more cognisant” of this fact since this guideline.
John Ryan, the CEO of the Penington Institute, an Australian research organisation that works on drug policy and public education, says legalisation would provide an opportunity for governments to instigate similar educational initiatives in Australia.
Reform would also allow people to have more open and honest conversations with their healthcare practitioners and improve community health literacy around cannabis risks, such as the signposts of dependence.
“We’ve got a blanket ‘just say no’ approach,” Ryan says. “That means that we’re leaving people vulnerable to much more significant harm.”
Where there has been a significant growth in health harms in Canada is in children’s hospital visits following accidental cannabis consumption. Following legalisation, two studies found a nine-fold increase in emergency department visits and a six-fold increase in hospitalisation for cannabis poisoning in children younger than 10.
In terms of criminal justice, however, there has been a dramatic reduction in the number of cannabis-related arrests since legalisation, in particular among youth.
“At a minimum, it has not been a disaster, and at best, you could say it’s achieved a good number of its objectives,” says public health policy expert Crépault.
What about other countries?
Last year, Germany passed its own Cannabis Act, taking a markedly different approach to Canada.
Under the law, over-18s are allowed to possess up to 25 grams of cannabis on their person and smoke in public spaces. In private homes, the legal limit is 50 grams and adults can grow up to three plants. Eventually, the goal is to have non-profit organisations where members’ fees provide access to legal cannabis.
Joshua Reiter is a student from Germany on exchange in Québec. He says he’s not sure the government has achieved its stated goals, particularly in curbing the black market and ensuring a high quality and safe product.
“It’s better not being persecuted … [But] you still have to go and find it on the street unless you want to try and grow it yourself,” he says.
In comparison, the Canadian model is appealing, Reiter says.
“It seems very clean and safe to go into a store…[staff ] are almost like consultants and you can really ask them everything and have experienced help.”
What models are proposed for Australia?
The Greens’ model includes licensed cannabis dispensaries, as well as cannabis cafes with products such as infused drinks, cannabis lattes and brownies. Senator Shoebridge says his cannabis legalisation should allow adults to make “adult decisions” about their recreation.
Legalise Cannabis Victoria proposes a three-stage plan for legalisation starting with regulation of possession of the drug for personal use before moving on to non-profit social clubs and finally commercial distribution through retail outlets.
The Penington Institute’s John Ryan is “suspicious” of the idea of cannabis cafes. He says a highly controlled model such as Canada’s would be more appropriate for Australia.
He points to Thailand’s experience where, after cannabis was decriminalised in 2022, growth has been “way too fast and not nearly regulated enough.” The country is discussing re-criminalising the drug amid concerns the lack of regulation has led to an increase in crime and use by underage consumers, as well as a honeypot effect drawing in tourists from across Asia.
He also points to the infamous example of coffee shops in the Netherlands, where long-term tolerance of the criminal supply-chain has helped line the pockets of the criminal underworld, according to UK defence and security think tank The Royal United Service Institute.
“There’s a strong justification to be inspired by the Canadian approach,” Ryan says. “They’ve demonstrated that you don’t have to have a free-for-all when you have a regulated market.”
How likely is it for Australia?
Despite Labor and the Coalition rejecting the Greens’ bill late last year, Senator Shoebridge says his party is “100 per cent committed” to getting a national legal recreational cannabis market in Australia, particularly in the case of a minority government.
Ryan says it’s more likely reforms will start at a state and territory level since they are responsible for drug and alcohol policy. He says the ACT’s model is already providing a “real life experiment” for other jurisdictions looking to change their policy, such as Victoria.
However, he says whether reforms are federal or at the state and territory level, Australia ultimately needs to move forward past its current old-fashioned and unsuccessful approach.
“It’s inevitable – the key question is when.”
