Nunavut launches survey asking residents' opinion on cannabis policy

The government of Nunavut launched a survey Tuesday, asking Nunavummiut for their opinions on how the territory should regulate legal marijuana.

The federal government has said legal weed will be available for sale to people 18 and older as of July 1, 2018. The territory has until then to hammer out the finer details of how that will work in Nunavut.

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It can set its own age limit on consumption and will have to determine how and where marijuana can be consumed and sold.

Dan Carlson, assistant deputy minister for the Department of Finance, says the departments of health, finance and justice are working together to consider all sides of the issue.

The public survey is available until Sept. 22 online and in paper from government liaison officers.

"The answers we will get will be entirely anonymous, we won't be able to connect it to the individual. That's important so people give us honest answers," Carlson said.

He says this survey will first gauge Nunavummiut's general feeling towards the idea of legalization before getting into more specifics.

There are questions about allowing smoking and edibles in public places, how marijuana education should roll out, and personal limits for possession and plants in the home.

"We will be taking all that and compiling it, taking a look at it behind the scenes to understand what respondents are thinking about some of the main questions," Carlson said.

Anyone over the age of 16 in Nunavut is asked to complete the survey, which takes about 10 minutes.

Nunavut is the third territory to seek public consultation into marijuanalegalization. Both the Yukon and N.W.T. governments launched their own online surveysearlier this summer.

• 'It's a great move': Yukoners asked for advice on legal pot rules
• N.W.T. gov't launches online survey as marijuana legalization consultation begins