The most confusing marijuana laws that could cost you thousands
If you feel confused about the rules for using, buying, growing or doing anything with cannabis, you are not alone.
For starters, know this: the federal law, The Cannabis Act, lays the framework, but the provinces and municipalities ultimately set the ground rules.
With that said, here’s are a few kind-of-confusing-cannabis laws that might trip you up, but could cost set you back thousands if you don’t remember.
Don’t toke and almost drive
One of the first cannabis offences just an hour into legalization day was a now-viral mistake behind the wheel in Manitoba. It was ‘an hour into legality, and something illegal’ this way came, as one Winnipeg police offer revealed of a driver caught with weed in their car.
While consuming cannabis is legal in Canada: possessing or consuming it in or on your vehicle — whether it’s moving or stopped — is not.
The driver was slapped with a staggering $672 fine, one of the steepest pot violations a Canadian can face.
Bottom line is that you cannot consume cannabis in your vehicle.
— Winnipeg Police (@wpgpolice) October 17, 2018
Delivery drama
In Ontario, your condo concierge cannot accept a cannabis shipment on your behalf.
Also, since anyone accepting the delivery must be of age, the delivery person will ask for ID if you look 25 or younger. If no one is home, the package will be sent back to the depot where you will have to go pick it up.
What’s in an age?
Eighteen-year-olds can light up in Alberta and Quebec, for now. Much of the rest of the provinces and territories opted for 19 as the minimum age to possess recreational cannabis, though the newly-elected CAQ government in Quebec wants to raise the minimum age to 21. Anyone caught offering pot to a young person could face fines in the thousands and/or jail time, depending on the province.
Happy trails
You can use cannabis on the trails in national parks in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. But don’t try it in: Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island or Yukon.
See the Parks Canada website for more information on marijuana in the wild.
Check the streets you’re on
In Montreal, the city government has opted to not to deviate from the provincial laws, which allow cannabis smoking in public parks. But Montreal also has smaller-scale borough councils, some of which are enacting local bylaws that restrict the same activity. As a result there are some streets where you can smoke on one side but not the other, as the Montreal Gazette reports.
Bud and breakfast
In what some hope will be a boon to the budding weed tourism industry, some provinces are allowing smoking and vaping cannabis in hotels and inns. P.E.I. and Ontario each have hotel locations open to the idea, but the rules vary from region to region.
Graveyard spliff
Edmonton, like many municipalities, has banned smoking cannabis in public parks, and went on to specify that, yes, cemeteries count as smoke-free zones.
