Live data from Hacker News

Cannabis is legal in Canada: What you need to know

cbc.ca

61–70 of 342 posts

Re: Cannabis is legal in Canada: What you need to know

#61
post #41
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least until April, a government website is the only legal way to buy pot in Ontario. Since they're selling it, they set the prices. In a lot of provinces the only legal way to get pot is through a government pot store. Alcohol works the same way; Ontario recently allowed the sales of wine & beer in some grocery stores, but everything else is at the LCBO, (government liquor stores), and the Beer Store, (which I thi…

The Beer Store is an even worse story: it’s a monopoly that’s owned by the breweries!

It was worse before Brewers' Retail (the name before The Beer Store). You needed to go to Molson for Molson, Labatt's for Labatt's, Carling for Carling, Dow for Dow, etc., and there was nowhere to buy anything brewed in Canada but not in Ontario since the LCBO could only sell international imports (by written order, with nothing on display).

Re: Cannabis is legal in Canada: What you need to know

#62
post #42
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> US border guards might deny you entry if you admit to previous cannabis use - for them "A confession is as good as a conviction". So you can do something that is perfectly legal in Canada, then a month later be denied entry to the US for doing it. That was already the (insane) case. Consider people who live in the Netherlands, or Czechia, or Portugal.

Hey, person living in Czechia here. Weed is illegal here. For carrying a joint or up to 10g of weed, you can get fined up to 600USD. More than that and you might have some serious problems with police. Of course you can't smoke it in public only at home. I think it's quite a misconception about Czechia being super weed friendly. As a tourist you are most probably going to get scammed on streets of Prague. If you want…

Tangent: when did "Czechia" become a recognized short form of "Czech Republic"? (I lived and worked in Prague in the late 90's and before today had never come across "Czechia".)

Re: Cannabis is legal in Canada: What you need to know

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can deny entry for pretty much any reason. You are correct that the US border policy with Canada doesn't make any sense.

I don't see a single reason why you can be forced to incriminate yourself. If confession equals conviction, laws about right to remain silent should also apply. I would happily say "no" and smile if I was you when asked about what you did in a different country that they have no business knowing.

>I don't see a single reason why you can be forced to incriminate yourself.

While thread didn't really get into citizenship, if you're aren't a citizen of the state in question you have no right of entry. The state has the right to ask for any information they wish and set criteria for entry as they wish. It's not a matter of "incrimination" as in you go to jail, it's a matter of obtaining permission for entry, you have no "right to remain silent". And in a democratic state I don't think that's immoral either. Knowing is in fact their business, and if it shouldn't be then the government should tell its border controls to not inquire at all.

>I would happily say "no" and smile if I was you when asked about what you did in a different country that they have no business knowing.

Obviously as a practical matter there are many situations where the odds of getting caught are minimal to non-existent, but I would be very cautious about casually committing perjury. Particularly in this worrying day and age of photos everywhere and ever increasing ML that can actually make sense of it and centralized datasets that governments may be able to gain access to. For example, particularly when the behavior is made legal I'd expect there to be a lot more people who post pictures of themselves using cannabis or not being concerned if someone else in the picture is because of course it's legal. Combine with spreading facial recognition and person tagging on places like Facebook and advertising (since it's legalized) that will be actively and legally interested in "is so-and-so a user so we can sell them related products" and someone could quite easily end up in a database saying "confirmed to use cannabis" without ever knowing. There are many times where "the coverup is worse then the crime" is quite true, and something that would merely get you politely or not so politely turned away would turn into a serious crime by lying about it. You can't know when an authority is asking you something out of actual interest vs a question they know the answer to already just to test you.

Honesty and political pressure seems better in this specific case given that it's not like there isn't already a major legalization movement in the US too. Canada is an extremely important business partner and source of tourism and ally. If enough Canadians were denied entry over this then even under this administration pressure to simply change the rules to ignore it would be very high. If not under this one then when the Democrats retake control.

Re: Cannabis is legal in Canada: What you need to know

#64

Slight digression, yesterday someone told me the existence of the Kratom plant. Which seems another potent and not harmful leaf that can improve your quality of life. (the few research on it is muddy so grain of salt required, but the amount of people shouting publicly for it in the US gets one thinking).

For a counterpoint, please see https://www.reddit.com/r/quittingkratom/

Kratom has many benefits, including the ability to get people off of serious opiate addictions.

However, it is dependence forming and many people have said the withdrawal process is worse even that heroin or benzo withdrawal. It's not without its negative affects.

Re: Cannabis is legal in Canada: What you need to know

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm taking issue with that statement because I think the rhetoric around marijuana is misguided. I think it's swung too far to the "there's nothing wrong with marijuana at all" side and that's dangerous. Like alcohol it's important to recognize that it is not harmless. That doesn't mean it should be illegal, just that it should be regulated and reported on accurately.

So if you are taking issue, what harm are you taking issue with?

My personal experience is that there are people who'll smoke marijuana to the point of not functioning properly in everyday life. It does appear that it is less addictive than alcohol but it's important that people realize that marijuana is not problem free and not a cure all. Which is sometimes the rhetoric from people who pushed for legalization.

Re: Cannabis is legal in Canada: What you need to know

#67
post #42
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> US border guards might deny you entry if you admit to previous cannabis use - for them "A confession is as good as a conviction". So you can do something that is perfectly legal in Canada, then a month later be denied entry to the US for doing it. That was already the (insane) case. Consider people who live in the Netherlands, or Czechia, or Portugal.

Hey, person living in Czechia here. Weed is illegal here. For carrying a joint or up to 10g of weed, you can get fined up to 600USD. More than that and you might have some serious problems with police. Of course you can't smoke it in public only at home. I think it's quite a misconception about Czechia being super weed friendly. As a tourist you are most probably going to get scammed on streets of Prague. If you want…

Maybe illegal, but there are still bars in Prague very openly selling pot.

Re: Cannabis is legal in Canada: What you need to know

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see a single reason why you can be forced to incriminate yourself. If confession equals conviction, laws about right to remain silent should also apply. I would happily say "no" and smile if I was you when asked about what you did in a different country that they have no business knowing.

You have no rights at the border.

Crossing a foreign border is a privilege not a right.

Re: Cannabis is legal in Canada: What you need to know

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can deny entry for pretty much any reason. You are correct that the US border policy with Canada doesn't make any sense.

Canada will deny a US citizen entry if they’ve ever had a DUI in their life, even if it was 30 years ago. Many people find this out the hard way.

[deleted]

Re: Cannabis is legal in Canada: What you need to know

#70
post #4

Wow, some really interesting edge cases in there that require serious thought. US border guards might deny you entry if you admit to previous cannabis use - for them "A confession is as good as a conviction". So you can do something that is perfectly legal in Canada, then a month later be denied entry to the US for doing it. If you work at a 100% legal Government-run Cannabis store and want to go to the US for a holi…

> US border guards might deny you entry if you admit to previous cannabis use - for them "A confession is as good as a conviction"

Why? Is it not just selling and possession but also the very act of smoking illegal in the USA? Are the USA citizens forced to follow the homeland laws wherever they travel even if the laws at where they are are different? It sounds like if they had to still drive the right sides of the roads when in UK/Japan.

Post reply on HN