Health committee  First, thank you very much to the committee and the chair for this kind invitation to allow me to present. It's really quite an honour to be here. I'm here as a private individual with expertise in international law. By way of background, I'm a full professor at York University

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  I think the reality is that countries have very different views about how best to regulate narcotics, including cannabis. The challenge then is that we have this multilateral treaty that most countries of the world are part of, and as a result of differences, it would probably ta

Health committee  Canada has several options. The one that's most feasible in terms of both allowing the legalization of cannabis and not breaking international law would be to actually withdraw from the existing treaties. Certainly the government would be able to, for example, decriminalize canna

Health committee  I really would love to emphasize that the consequences actually are quite severe in the sense that it's not just our reputation. It's not just Canada's standing on the global international scene. If we violate international law we are actually undermining the best mechanism we ha

Health committee  When it comes to trade, I think what's most implicated by the treaties is the trade in medicines in the sense that it was mentioned that these treaties do govern not only the illegal use of narcotics but also their medical use. From that perspective that is one advantage of the t

Health committee  That could definitely be the case. I don't know what the government is thinking on this matter, but I think it could equally.... Violating a treaty could also jeopardize a seat on the UN Security Council. In that respect, I don't think we'd go with that—

Health committee  I think at least in one way we can say that we're not violating international law—which is, I definitely want to emphasize, a serious thing. Yes, these laws are not perfect. In fact, as I stated, they're rather mean. Yes, we should ideally seek to renegotiate them to make them be

Health committee  That's right.