Thank you.
In the area of public education, your first point is a great idea. We're definitely in favour of having evidence-based education at a young age about what drugs are, the various social scenarios where you might find yourself involved in drugs, the harms of drugs, and why people take drugs and report feelings of benefit or otherwise, in medical use or otherwise.
Having a discussion from a very early age based on evidence, rather than myth and scare tactics, is good. I grew up under “just say no” and the egg in the frying pan, and here I am testifying to the House committee on legalizing drugs. I don't think those messages work in the way they're intended to. Basing it on evidence and also, where possible, having young people themselves as the educators and talking about their own experience would make it more effective.
On your second point around the ticketable offence, again as Mr. Culbert said, ticketing is preferable to criminalization. In the best scenario, we would create a social framework where it's not necessarily a punitive approach against young people, but more working with them about use.
Having the floor of no tolerance, zero possession, isn't realistic. That would incentivize police to go after just minor things, hassling young people. If someone is smoking in public, it could be confiscated, and the peace officer could say, “Don't do this”, but ultimately I don't think there should be any process at zero tolerance to be effective.