From 2002: Should Canada relax its pot laws?
CBC News looks at whether it's time for Canada's cannabis laws to change in 2002.
Prohibition in place for decades, as marijuana use continued
In 1923 it became illegal for Canadians to possess marijuana. But the laws were long flouted by recreational users and by medicinal users seeking relief from pain and illness.
As Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon said he was considering decriminalizing cannabis in 2002, CBC News looked at the changing attitudes toward marijuana in Canada.
Two years earlier, the Ontario Court of Appeal had warned the federal government to change its pot laws within a year or risk losing them altogether after ruling that the law prohibiting marijuana possession was unconstitutional because it did not take users of medicinal marijuana into account.
