Under CAQ, legal age to consume cannabis in Quebec will be 21 eventually

With pot's legalization exactly two weeks away, a key member of the new Legault government is acknowledging the legal age to consume cannabis in Quebec will remain18,for now.

The Coalition Avenir Qubec campaigned on a promise to increase the legal age to 21, which would be the highest minimum agein Canada.

Ian Lafrenire, a newly elected CAQ MNA and former spokesperson for the Montreal police, said it will be tough to fulfil that promise in time for Oct. 17, the day cannabis becomeslegal across Canada.

But his party fully intends to keep that pledge, he said, and it will try as much as possible to limit the transition period.

"The reason we announced that before the date [is] we want to be crystal clear. We don't want it to be a surprise for people," he said on CBC Montreal's Daybreak.

Simon Jolin-Barrette, who served as the CAQ's justice critic and was re-elected Monday, said the government will make the change as soon as possible, although he didn't providea clear timeline.

BillBlairsays the federal government won't interfere if Quebec decides to go through with the increase to the age limit.

The minister responsible for border security and organized crime reduction says Ottawa will leave it to the provinces to decide their own age limits.

Brain studies cited

The CAQwas critical of the plan to set the legal age at 18 from the start, citing various medicalgroups whose research has concluded cannabis use can harm brain development in those under 25.

Lafreniresaid studies his party has consulted suggest teenagers start smoking pot at 16, but the CAQwas not prepared to set the mininumlegal age that low.

When it was suggested that setting the legal age at 21 would create an exclusive market for pot dealers, made up of 18-to 20-year-olds, Lafreniresaid dealers will be just as happy if the legal age remains 18.

Jean-Sbastien Fallu, an associate professor of psycho-education at Universit de Montral, said he believes raising the age isa well-intentionedbut bad idea.

He said there is no scientific consensus on what is the safe age to start using cannabis. The answer, he said, iswhen someone is mature enough to do so.

If 18 is old enough to vote or drink, it should be old enough to make a decision to consumecannabis, he said.

Raising the age to 21 would create an inconsistency and criminalize something 18- to 20-year-olds would have been doing legally up until the change is made, he said.

CAQwants to ban smoking in public

Right now, thelaw bans smoking in the same locations as those set out by tobacco laws, as well as on the grounds of:

• Universities and CEGEPs.
• Hospital and social services institutions.
• Elementary schools anddaycares.

TheCAQ wants to change the provincial cannabis law,enacted in June, to ban smoking the drug in all public places.

Several towns and cities have already announced such aban, including, most recently, Quebec City.

The City ofHampsteadbanned smoking on municipal property, while Montreal's Pierrefonds-Roxboroborough banned smoking in parks in May and theSaint-Laurent borough hasstarted the process to prevent cannabis from being used in public places in time for Oct. 17.

Both those boroughs are controlled by members of Ensemble Montral, the official opposition at city hall. The oppositionsays the Plante administration is dragging its heels on the subject andshould follow Ensemble Montral'slead.

A spokesperson for the administration says the city's plans on how the drug is to be regulated will be unveiled next week.

Lafrenire explained that the provincial law won't trump a municipal bylaw, and so if Montreal doesn't want to implement the same ban, it doesn't have to.

The CAQ, he said, is trying to create a framework within which the municipalities can work.

"Not even as an ex-police officer, but as a parent, it's always easier to make the rule extremely strict and loosen up later on."

Dr. Judith Archambault, who speaks for theMontrgie public health department, said 42 per cent ofQuebec consumers of cannabis arebetween the ages of 18 and 24.

Raising the legal age to 21 means anyone under that agewon't have access to the legal market, so they will resort to the black market.

The director of public health in the Quebec City region issued a news release last week, saying the current provincial law goes far enough, and that itis "unnecessary" for municipalities implementrules that further ban where cannabis can be smoked.

It says, among other things, that forcing pot smokersindoors will make the effects of secondhand smoke worse, and that it creates social equity issues because young people are more likely to be renters and therefore subject to rules that would ban them from smoking at home.

Landlords in Quebec have taken steps to ensure smoking pot will be banned in rental properties.

With files from CBC Montreal's Radio Noon and The Canadian Press