The Government of Canada has committed to legalizing, strictly regulating, and restricting access to cannabis. In April 2017, the government introduced Bill C-45, the proposed Cannabis Act. Subject to the approval of Parliament, the Government of Canada intends to bring the proposed Cannabis Act into force no later than July 2018.
Health Canada is seeking your feedback on the Consultation Paper: Proposed Approach to the Regulation of Cannabis. This approach builds on the extensive consultations already conducted by the Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation and Canada’s existing system of regulated production of cannabis for medical purposes and industrial hemp. The deadline to provide written comments and responses to the questionnaire is January 20, 2018.
Health Canada has also published details on how the proposed various types of license requirements are to be set.
Below highlighted are the specifics to the proposed regulation requirements.
Health Canada is proposing a system of licences, permits, and authorizations that is intended to:
Allow a range of different activities with cannabis (for example, cultivation, processing and research);
- Enable a diverse, competitive legal industry comprised of both large and small players in regions across the country;
- Reduce the risk that organized crime will infiltrate the legal industry; and
- Ensure that legal cannabis products meet high quality standards.
To this end, it is proposed that the regulations would establish different types of authorizations, based on the activity being undertaken, and in some cases, the scale of the activity. The regulations would also establish rules and requirements for the different categories of authorized activities that would be proportional to the public health and safety risks posed by each category of activity.
The following types of authorizations are proposed:
- Cultivation: Standard cultivation, micro-cultivation, industrial hemp, and nurseries;
- Processing: Standard processing, and micro-processing;
- Sale (federal level): Sale for medical purposes, and sale for non-medical purposes to adults in provinces and territories that have not yet enacted a retail framework;
- Analytical testing;
- Import/Export; and
- Research.
Import/export proposed requirements are found under 2.2.10 Import & Exports and 2.4.1 Import & Export Permits and Authorizations in the Consultations on Proposed Cannabis Act and regulation can be viewed here.