John Oliver

"It's still up for debate, but if we were to look at this, I think it would also be important to look at what regulation does to improve things and to reduce the risk to children. Regulation allows licensed manufacturing. It allows potency to be identified on labels, much like production of alcohol, so that you understand what you are absorbing. It's released through controlled environments, rather than the black market and the uncertainty of that. I think the regulation aspects of how it's prepared, licensed, and regulated may mitigate the risks of children being exposed to it. I think we could probably all quickly agree that children using marijuana is completely unacceptable and that there are health risks. There are a lot of studies that show the long-term consequences of underage young Canadians using marijuana, so how do you better restrict access? I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think the WHO study—the World Health Organization—said that right now Canadian teens are the highest or second-highest users of marijuana globally. How do we reduce access, or limit access, or have zero access to marijuana, while at the same time regulating the production of it and licensing its release?" House of Commons speech
9 years ago (23-04-2016)

Very helpful
7 years ago (05-01-2018)