Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says the plan to legalize recreational marijuana does not include a general amnesty for past convictions.
The Justice critic for the federal NDP, Alastair MacGregor calls the decision wrongheaded, saying a criminal conviction can have an adverse effect on finding a job, travel and even renting an apartment. The NDP says in 2014, 57 thousand arrests were made for possession of marijuana and 43 per cent of those arrests wound up with convictions.
NDP Health critic Don Davies says a substantial amount of the additional revenue from taxing legal marijuana should be used on treating addictions to harder drugs which, right now, is woefully inadequate as evidenced by the opiod crisis.
