The Prime Minister says the government is on track to legalize pot for recreational use by July 1st of next year.
During yesterday's stop in Windsor, Justin Trudeau addressed plans to legalize marijuana, as part of a one-on-one interview with AM800's Patty Handysides.
Trudeau says legalizing marijuana will take money away from criminals. "Right now our kids find it easier to buy a joint than it is to buy a bottle of beer. The criminal black market around marijuana means our kids have easy access to it. So if we control and regulate the sale of marijuana, we're better able to prevent it from getting it into the hands of minors, which is a goal I think we can all agree on."
"Criminal organizations make billions of dollars a year off of the marijuana industry in Canada," says Trudeau. "We want to remove those profits off them because they go on and create more criminal activities with it, but at the same time, we want to be able to invest in addiction treatment and health care."
The Liberal government will put forward legislation to legalize marijuana in Canada by July 1, 2018.
The legislation will state that only Canadians 18 years or older will be allowed to buy the drug. However, the individual provinces will be allowed to change the age limit.