The pros, cons and unknowns of legal cannabis in Canada 3 years later | CBC News

The legalization of cannabis in Canada just had its third anniversary, which means it's time for the federal government to review and possibly tweak the policy.

But despite some positive signs, some health experts are concerned that the rapid growth of the industry combined with a lack of recent data about potential public health impacts means we could be missing some warning signs.

On Oct. 17, 2018, cannabis became legal in all provinces and territories for adults 18 and over, making Canada just the second country to legalize recreational use of the drug.

Statistics Canada data suggests retail sales in 2020 were just over $2.6 billion, which represented a 120 per cent increase compared to 2019.

"From the perspective of a criminologist, legalization has been successful with respect to reducing the criminalization of people for cannabis offences," said Owusu-Bempah, who is also an adviser to the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and director of research for Cannabis Amnesty.

And many of those left with criminal records from offences committed prior to legalization are people of colour, he said, and he wants to see more records cleared.

Russell Callaghan, a professor in the University of Northern British Columbia's northern medical program, is researching the impacts of legalization on a range of public health indicators.

Callaghan says his research on traffic injuries in Ontario and Alberta does not suggest legalization has had a significant effect, at least not yet.

Another goal of the Cannabis Act is to protect public health, and on that measure, rising consumption may bring new challenges.

"When we see increases in rates of use, that starts to raise a bit of a warning sign in terms of public health, because we don't want to see more people consuming," said Rebecca Jesseman, the director of policy at the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA), an Ottawa-based non-governmental organization.

"To be honest, it's just too soon," she said of assessing legal marijuana's effects on public health.

That's because almost all of the available research on legal marijuana comes from the first six months after legalization, he said.

The industry in many provinces and territories looks very different now than it did then — both in terms of the commercial availability of cannabis and the range of cannabis products available.

"The problem it creates is that we have lots of data about the early phases after legalization, at the exact time that there was essentially no legal market," he said.

That's notable, Myran says, because edibles present some difficult public health challenges compared to other cannabis products such as flowers and oils.

In a report card on legalization released this week, C3 gives governments a B grade on keeping cannabis out of the hands of youth and protecting public health — but that's as high as the grades go.

Those are public health measures that have proven effective in limiting harms from tobacco and alcohol, he said.