Withdrawing from drug treaties over legal pot would be a ‘mistake’: Freeland

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is defending the Liberal government’s decision not to withdraw from three international drug treaties, which Canada will violate once cannabis is legalized, arguing it would have been a “mistake” and “very wrong” to pull Canada out of the international legal framework. In an appearance before a Senate committee Tuesday, she […]

Published May 1, 2018 at 7:03pm

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is defending the Liberal government’s decision not to withdraw from three international drug treaties, which Canada will violate once cannabis is legalized, arguing it would have been a “mistake” and “very wrong” to pull Canada out of the international legal framework.

In an appearance before a Senate committee Tuesday, she used the country’s burgeoning opioid crisis as an example.

Freeland said the conventions regulate the movement of more than 100 drugs and substances, including “many that play a role in Canada and indeed North America’s opioid crisis.”