Cannabis 

The Report of the Canadian Government Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs - 1972

Canadian Government Commission of Inquiry into the Non-Medical Use of Drugs, published by Information Canada, Ottawa, Canada, 1972, Crown Copyrights Reserved

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

NOTES

(a) Our surveys show that of all the people who had ever used cannabis by 1970, approximately 23 per cent had used LSD. For the high school population, the figure was approximately 35 per cent. Over 95 per cent of those who had used LSD had also used cannabis.

(b) Criminal Records Act, Revised Statutes of Canada, 1970, Chap. 12 (Ist Supp.). Under this Act a person may apply to the federal government for a pardon when two years have elapsed following satisfaction of the sentence in summary conviction cases and five years in other cases. The pardon is granted upon recommendation of the National Parole Board. The effect of such pardon is to vacate the conviction, remove any disqualifications resulting from it under federal legislation or regulations, and prevent any question from being asked concerning the conviction in connection with service in the armed forces or employment in government or any enterprise under federal jurisdiction. Thereafter the record of the conviction may be disclosed only for certain limited purposes with the authorization of the Solicitor General.

(c) In Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, the maximum penalty for trafficking in cannabis ranges from two to six years' imprisonment; in Great Britain, it is twelve months on summary conviction and fourteen years upon indictment; in France, it is ten years, although certain acts which would be included in the definition of trafficking are punishable by as much as twenty years; in the United States, under the federal law (the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970), the maximum penalty for a first offence of trafficking in cannabis is five years plus a special parole term of at least two years, and for a subsequent offence, ten years plus a special parole term of at least four years. In the case of distribution by a person of at least 18 years of age to a person under 21 years of age, the maximum penalty is double what it is in an ordinary first offence and triple what it is in an ordinary subsequent offence. Thus, in certain cases, the maximum penalty for trafficking in cannabis under federal law can be as high as thirty years. The maximum penalties under state law are, in many cases, much higher than they are under federal law.

(d) Major reports include the British Indian Hemp Drugs Commission Report (1893-4); Mayor La Guardia's report on The Marihuana Problem in the City of New York (I 944); the Proceedings of the White House Conference on Narcotic and Drug Abuse (1962); the United States President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice Task Force Report: Narcotics and Drug Abuse (1967); the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare report Marihuana and Health (1971). Other government reports of significance appear in the bibliography to Chapter 2.