Weed Legalization Is Boosting Police Budgets Across Canada
A new era of legal recreational marijuana in Canada is bringing with it an expanded enforcement regime that increases police powers and provides hundreds of millions of dollars in new funding for law enforcement to prosecute new weed-related offences.
Every aspect of the growing, possession, sale and transportation of cannabis is now strictly regulated. And the legislation that legalized pot also created a slew of new criminal offences that will target people who, willingly or otherwise, violate the new laws.
The federal government has allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to train and equip police to investigate and prosecute cannabis crimes under the legal regime, including on the roads and at the border. A VICE News analysis has found that provinces and cities are ponying up millions more to support cannabis enforcement, even as experts warn that some aspects of cannabis laws may be unconstitutional and that their enforcement could disproportionately impact young people and already overpoliced communities.
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