Oct. 17 (UPI) — Recreational marijuana will become legal throughout Canada on Wednesday, and those who have marijuana convictions on their record may soon get a pardon.
The pardons will be issued to people who have been convicted of possession of 30 grams or less. They won’t be issued immediately and may require an application process. Public safety and health officials are expected to announce details of the plan on Wednesday, CTV News reported.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Tuesday that the pardon issue will be a focus for his administration in the coming days.
When marijuana becomes legal in Canada, the nation will become the largest in the world to have a fully legalized marketplace for the drug. Only one other country — Uruguay — has done the same.
At least 111 shops will open across the country in every province except for Ontario, which will allow shops next spring once officials there figure out how they want to regulate the market.
But Canadians everywhere will be allowed to purchase marijuana online.
“Alcohol took my grandfather and it took his youngest son, and weed has taken no one from me ever,” Ryan Bose, a Lyft driver in Toronto, told Time magazine.
