The 2015 Election in Canada was a very big victory for marijuana reform. No, marijuana reform itself was not on the ballot, but when Justin Trudeau was elected it dramatically increased the chances that Canada will legalize marijuana sooner than later. After all, Trudeau included marijuana legalization as part of his campaign platform, and said after he was elected that he would push for marijuana legalization straight out the gate. As if electing a pro-marijuana candidate wasn’t enough to show how popular marijuana reform is in Canada, a poll was recently released which found overwhelming support for marijuana legalization. Per Forum Research:
In a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 1256 Canadian voters, the majority, close to 6-in-10, approve of the Liberal government’s promise to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana (59%), and this is an increase over the proportion who said they agreed marijuana should be legal in mid-August of this year (August 20 – 53%).
The government’s policy promise is especially popular with the youngest (67%), the wealthiest (66%), in Atlantic Canada (75%) and BC (68%), among Liberals (70%) and New Democrats (65%) but not so much among Conservatives (28%).
The same poll found that roughly 20% of Canadians have consumed marijuana in the last year. All eyes in the marijuana community are tightly locked on Canada right now, waiting to see what the next move is. I remember back before ‘Operation Frozen Timber,’ there was Canadian marijuana all over the West Coast. It was super high quality, and I can’t wait until Canada legalizes so that I can travel there and smoke some BC bud like I did so many times back in the day.
