This policy brief, produced by the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICDSP) and a capstone group in the Master of Global Affairs program, provides guidance to national governments seeking to align domestic legalization and regulation of recreational cannabis markets with their international legal obligations. The policy employs a transformative scenario planning (TSP) process to identify potential policy scenarios which were refined based on input from key informants including senior Canadian government policymakers.
The policy brief uses Canada as a primary case study, the second country in the world to commit to legalizing and regulating recreational cannabis markets at a national level. On April 13, 2017, the Canadian federal government introduced legislation to implement a regulatory framework for recreational cannabis markets by July 2018.