Cannabis Act legislative review Expert Panel welcomes the tabling of its final report

OTTAWA, ON, March 21, 2024 /CNW/ - Today, the independent Expert Panel conducting the review of the Cannabis Act welcomed the tabling of its final report in both houses of Parliament. The report, a legislative requirement under the Act, reviews progress toward meeting the Act's objectives and recommends changes to the Act and its supporting regulations and policies.

"The Cannabis Act is a dramatic departure from prohibition, which had been the approach to controlling cannabis for the past century. After 18 months of careful consultation and discussion, we believe the legalization of cannabis was the right decision, and the 2018 framework provides a solid foundation to be built upon," said Morris Rosenberg, Chair of the Expert Panel. "That said, the legalization of cannabis was not a one-time event, and now is not the time for complacency. There is much work to be done."

The Expert Panel engaged with more than 600 people from over 250 organizations during nearly 140 engagement sessions to better understand the realities and experiences of different communities since the implementation of the Act.

After thorough consultation and consideration, the Expert Panel concluded that all levels of government have successfully established a legal industry that provides quality-controlled cannabis products to adult consumers in a relatively short period of time. The majority of Canadian cannabis consumers have moved from illicit cannabis sources to the legal market.

The Expert Panel believes legalization's greatest impact so far has been the significant reduction in the number of interactions with the criminal justice system. Since 2017, there has been a 95 per cent reduction in cannabis possession charges.

However, the Expert Panel's final report sends a strong message that the government needs to be vigilant and take further steps to protect public health and public safety and remain ready to respond to areas of concern, including the viability of the legal market.

The Expert Panel provides 54 recommendations and 11 observations to improve the cannabis framework, including:

• Setting and monitoring targets for reducing youth and young adult cannabis use and cannabis-related harms, and redoubling efforts to inform Canadians about the potential risks to children that can arise from accidental exposure to cannabis products.
• Revising health warning messages on cannabis product labels to ensure they are appropriate to the product and reinstating health warning messages that pertain to serious cannabis-related mental health risks, including psychosis and schizophrenia.
• Working with First Nations, Inuit and Métis to co-develop amendments to the Cannabis Act that authorize the Minister to enter into nation-to-nation agreements with interested communities to control commercial cannabis activities in their communities, where health and safety standards are met.
• Encouraging Finance Canada to review the excise tax model, recognizing that it was originally designed when the average price of dried cannabis was significantly higher than it is today, and considering moving to a progressive tax model where higher-potency products are subject to more tax.
• Encouraging Health Canada to accelerate work on regulatory streamlining to reduce the administrative burden on federal licence holders while ensuring that the public health and public safety objectives of the Cannabis Act are not compromised.
• Calling for the medical access regime to be maintained with improvements, including permitting pharmacies to distribute cannabis products to individuals holding a medical authorization from a health care professional.
• Urging the identification of research priorities, and for the government to support research, surveillance and monitoring activities in order to fill key knowledge gaps about cannabis and the ongoing impacts of legalization.

"We want to thank the hundreds of people and organizations who were engaged in the public consultations to enrich our review of the Cannabis Act and how it has been implemented over the past five years," said Rosenberg. "The diverse perspectives, research, evidence and lived experiences shared with the panel were critical in shaping our report's recommendations."

You can read the full report here.

The Expert Panel appreciates the opportunity to have undertaken this critical review of the cannabis framework in Canada.

Cannabis Act Legislative Review Secretariat

[email protected]

SOURCE Health Canada (HC)