Mr. Chair, may I respond quickly.
That's an excellent question and one that was raised throughout the testimony. I think it's a fair characterization of the evidence we heard that cannabis is a product similar to tobacco and alcohol and that we should adopt a similar regulatory system for it. These are mind-altering substances. You don't want children using them. They all have health consequences to varying degrees, but ultimately we think they are substances that adults should be able to choose in the comfort of their own homes to indulge in or not without attracting criminal sanctions. That's why I'm really puzzled by this. According to the evidence we heard—and the Liberals heard the same evidence—cannabis is less harmful than tobacco or alcohol in any range of measure. So why would we be bringing in legislation that retains a much harsher, much heavier criminalized approach to cannabis when we don't apply the same approach to tobacco or alcohol?
I think it's justified to have some regulatory controls on this, as we do with tobacco and alcohol, because we want to keep these substances out of the hands of children, out of the hands of organized crime, and because we want to make sure the products are safe and that production is controlled. I think this warrants a regulatory approach where there have to be some sanctions. The question is: what are the appropriate sanctions? Dr. Eyolfson said there needs to be some consequences, but we're talking about possession. This is the possession section, not the trafficking section.
The question is whether we need a five-year jail term. Is that really what we as parliamentarians want to prescribe for people caught with 90 grams of cannabis? Are we going to say, in 2017, that these people are criminals and that they can go to jail for five years? There was no evidence before this committee suggesting that this was an appropriate response. The Liberals, I can tell, are going to vote against this, and they can do that. What they can't do, though, is square their position with the evidence we heard at this committee. The evidence showed that this position is completely out of whack with even the penalties given now under complete criminal prohibition where you can traffic large amounts of cannabis and get two years, whereas under this act you can possess 80 grams and get five years.
What I want to do is find the proper regulatory system with proportionate responses so that we can legalize this substance. I take Dr. Eyolfson's point that this represents a change in culture and requires that we move with some caution. I think that's understandable. But it doesn't mean we should pass a bill that has criminal law provisions that are not based on the evidence and that we all know will do more harm than good.