There was a time when the cannabis that grew in Canada did not have a hallucinogenic effect, as a result of which all marijuana and hashish came from outside the country. People at the time received a minimum sentence of seven years in prison for bringing those drugs into Canada.
Do you think it would be good to determine whether that very harsh sentence helped reduce marijuana consumption or whether, on the contrary, it contributed to increasing it? To determine whether there was an influence on drug imports to Canada, we could go back and examine the statistics on drug-related sentences during the following periods: the first, during which a minimum seven-year sentence was applied; the period during which it was no longer applied; and the period during which the Supreme Court declared that that minimum sentence was unconstitutional.