Deciding to legalize marijuana was the easy part for the Trudeau government. Seventy per cent of Canadians say they like the idea - in principle. It's all those tricky details of exactly how to do it that can trip you up.

Now a panel of experts appointed by the government has recommended a way forward. It proposes a regime that would combine some decidedly liberal elements - such as allowing 18-year-olds to buy pot - with more restrictive measures - including a ban on most advertising. Taken together, it's a smart package.

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Canada's Marijuana Task Force gave the green light to the green leaf, Tuesday.

While legislation still must be written and and passed through Parliament, smokers of the bud were blown away by the federally appointed task force's recommendation the government legislate the recreational sale of marijuana to the general public.

"We are super happy here, so glad to see this program is going forward," said Stephanie Brown, manager of the new Cannabis Supply Company in Barrie's south end. The store does not have cannabis on site, but does sell medical marijuana supplies such as vaporizers, water pipes, cookbooks and educational books, as well as setting up appointments for clients to meet with cannabis-friendly physicians.

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Report recommends provinces and territories all control wholesale distribution of marijuana while working closely with municipalities to cre

Canadians now have an idea of when they will be able to purchase recreational marijuana, who can buy it and how much, but where and how cannabis is sold remains up to provinces that are offering only vague opinions on the eventual retail rules for the drug.

Now that the federal task force has recommended against selling cannabis in liquor stores - an idea floated in British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario - it is unclear whether sales will be at government-run outlets, pharmacies or private shops. The panel recommended provinces and territories control the wholesale distribution of marijuana, but work closely with municipalities to create their own approach to selling recreational pot, which Ottawa expects could happen two years from now.

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A group representing Alberta's liquor stores is advocating for the alcohol industry's involvement in the sale of legalized recreational marijuana.

"It's unfortunate from our perspective that the task force took out an entire industry for selling cannabis, especially when that industry has such a good track record," said Ivonne Martinez, president of the Alberta Liquor Store Association. "We have high compliance, we sell in a responsible way."

Her comments followed the release of a report Tuesday that was commissioned by the federal Liberal government. The framework document recommended that recreational marijuana shouldn't be sold in the same locations as alcohol or tobacco. It also recommended storefront and mail-order sales to Canadians over the age of 18 and personal growing limits of four plants per person.

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The Canadian government is giving itself until late 2018 or early 2019 to open up the market for recreational marijuana, based on a road map that will allow everyone over 18 to purchase pot from a variety of producers and retailers or to grow their own.

In a report released on Tuesday, a task force chaired by former Liberal minister Anne McLellan provided 80 recommendations to end the prohibition on marijuana that dates back to 1923, using a model similar to the one in place for sales of tobacco and alcohol.

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We based [ our recommendation] on available medical and scientific literature and the concerns we had. Jeff Blackmer VP of medical professionalism at the Canadian Medical Association

Members of Canada's medical community are disappointed over a federal task force's recommendation to allow cannabis sales to those 18 and over, with some warning unrestricted access could have a detrimental impact on developing brains.

As the government moves toward legalization, it also faces the enormous challenge of combatting the widely held mistaken belief that marijuana is harmless, according to a number of medical organizations and substance use experts.

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As Canada prepares to become the largest jurisdiction in the world to legalize recreational marijuana, a federal task force has told Ottawa it should also require the product to be lab-tested, safe to consume and free of harmful contaminants such as bacteria, mould and dangerous pesticides.

That recommendation was part of a report released on Tuesday that will be a blueprint for new legislation expected in the spring.

The call from the Federal Task Force on Cannabis Legalization for mandatory product testing and accurate depictions of potency on packaging comes after concerns were raised over a lack of regulations and consumer protection in the cannabis dispensary industry, which has proliferated this year leading up to legalization.

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Players in nascent market see stocks rise as report recommends Ottawa move quickly to boost increase in production capacity

Canadian marijuana stocks surged on Tuesday after a federal task force released its long-awaited recommendations on the legalization of the drug for recreational use.

The report, ordered by Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, proposed that people over the age of 18 be allowed to carry up to 30 grams of marijuana for recreational purposes. It also recommends restrictions on advertising and how and where the product can be sold, and suggests the government move quickly to "increase or create capacity in many areas relating to the production and sale of cannabis."

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To combat the mounting death toll from drug overdoses in Canada, the Health Ministry in British Columbia has determined that programs allowing witnessed drug injection must be considered part of the crisis response. The federal government has introduced Bill C-37, designed to streamline the process for supervised consumption site approval. These are welcome and important initiatives that recognize that we can't help people that we don't see.

While the introduction of street-level fentanyl has been blamed for the recent spike in deaths, this crisis has exposed the precarious lives of people who use drugs and their dependence on an unregulated network of illicit drug distributors who care little about their customers. Because of high demand for opioid drugs, even if the supply of fentanyl could be completely cut off, it would be replaced by something else.

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Re: A smart way forward, Editorial Dec. 14

So the government's panel of "experts" has recommended both the legalization of recreational marijuana and to allow 18-year-old young people, whose brains and general physiology are still developing, to buy and use it.

One might wonder why a government, supposedly concerned with the well-being of its citizens, would encourage them to engage in taking a mind-altering drug (and legalization will certainly be seen as a stamp of approval) against the advice of many in the medical establishment.

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Dear editor:

Council is at it again. At what you might ask? Council seems to be setting precedents everywhere. The Prime Minister is in trouble as City of Penticton is on the loose. This is shown by council's decision to issue temporary

business licenses to marijuana purveyors.

Before I go any further and for those who are ardent marijuana advocates, I will clarify my stance on the subject.

This is my personal opinion and only my personal opinion on the issue. I am not totally against marijuana use for anyone else (except youngsters and small children).

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As drug-related deaths rise in B.C. and opioids continue to spread nationwide, government seeks amendments to Harper-era bill

Ottawa will introduce a bill Monday that is expected to reduce barriers to opening and operating supervised drug consumption sites in Canada.

The move comes days after B.C. announced it would open several "overdose prevention sites" without federal approval as an emergency measure to counter the province's highest death toll on record due to illicit drugs.

As well, carfentanil - a powerful synthetic opioid many times more toxic than fentanyl - has now been detected in three provinces and is beginning to fuel another surge in overdoses, creating a new sense of urgency.

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A spike in fentanyl-overdose reversals thanks to naloxone kits has been documented by the local HIV Community Link, and shows the lifesaving impact the program is having.

Since the local organization began training and dispersing naloxone kits, they've officially documented 16 overdose reversals - and 12 within just the last few weeks, said overdose prevention nurse Kim Dick.

"It's been quite a jump - it's been correlated with something like a bad batch of heroin we're assuming was laced with fentanyl coming through town," said Dick.

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Young teen leaves victim with concussion

An attack that left a girl with a concussion resulted in a year's probation for another Lambton County girl.

The impact of marijuana use on developing brains was one of the issues to be examined during probation.

Science has identified substantial negative mental impacts on teens' developing brains and the focus on marijuana use within the girl's report was concerning, said Justice Deborah Austin during the girl's sentencing.

The young teenage girl had pleaded guilty in Sarnia youth court to an assault causing bodily harm during the spring.

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The federal government is looking at arming Canada's border guards with broader powers to open and seize suspect packages, as a growing volume of illicit fentanyl is smuggled into the country.

Caroline Xavier, a vice-president at the Canada Border Services Agency, told a House of Commons committee examining the opioid crisis that the government is reviewing the Customs Act to determine whether restrictions that prevent guards from opening small packages should be removed.

Currently, border guards who inspect goods coming into the country are not authorized to open packages weighing less than 30 grams without the consent of the recipient. They can open and inspect any package exceeding that threshold and use detection technology to screen all mail.

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CBSA guards have good reason to fear wave of incoming cartels, he says

Canada's border guardians have reason to fear an influx of drug cartel operatives following the elimination of visa requirements for Mexico, says a former DEA agent.

But while the Liberal government action on visas will ease the way for drug traffickers, Mike Vigil said Canada is already ripe for the ruthless cartels.

"It will definitely be a factor but not the only factor," said Vigil, who battled Mexican drug cartels in the Latin American country for 13 years, four of them along the border with the U.S.

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The number of registered users has tripled during past year

The number of Canadians legally signed up to buy medical marijuana has more than tripled in the last year.

The Health Canada statistics reflect an explosion in the number of Canadians who are turning to marijuana to get relief from everything from chronic pain to nausea from chemotherapy. By the end of September, nearly 100,000 Canadians had obtained prescriptions and registered to buy cannabis with one of the growers licensed by Health Canada, such as the Tweed company in Smiths Falls.

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Fifteen years ago, Abbotsford's Tracey McClelland was a first-time mother, yearning to hold her tiny premature son.

Instead, most of the time she could only watch as her little 4.5-pound bundle lay in his isolette in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Abbotsford's hospital.

Today, with her three children all healthy and grown, she has returned to the NICU at Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre. This time, she's here to cuddle and comfort other babies with issues far more serious than her son ever faced, as one of 15 volunteer cuddlers dedicated to soothing substance-exposed newborns.

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Re Panel To Tell Ottawa To Monitor Legal Pot (Dec. 8): The problems with marijuana will not result from its legalization but from the commercialization of this drug. A recent study of Grade 6 to 8 students (a high risk population) in southern California showed that students who were exposed to medical marijuana ads were twice as likely to intend to use cannabis than those who were not.

I hope we will not repeat the tragic mistake that occurred with cigarettes in the 1950s when only the "healthy" effects of its use was promoted by Big Tobacco to increase consumption.

James G. Wigmore, forensic toxicologist, Toronto

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I went downtown to see what was going on for Christmas and wandered over to Centennial Square and saw a Ferris wheel loading up with children. Just a few feet away a gang of people was sitting smoking crack and one was injecting something that I assume was not insulin.

Consenting adults may do whatever they want in private, as far as I am concerned. It's none of my business. But whoever is in charge down there and allows this to happen in public, in that location, is making some pretty stupid decisions.

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