2 New Brunswick senators explain their opposing votes on cannabis

Sen. Carolyn Stewart Olsen thinks Canadians aren't ready for legal cannabis, but a fellow New Brunswicker in the Senate, Pierrette Ringuette, says people are using the drug already anyway.

"Canadians are smoking marijuana whether we legalize it or not," Ringuette, an Independent senator, said Friday, the day after the Senate voted in favour of Bill C-45, legalizing recreational cannabis.

I don't think our kids should carry a criminal record around for years because they made a mistake.- Carolyn Stewart Olsen, Conservative senator from New Brunswick

"So the vote last night was not about allowing them to do it, it was providing them with a legal means and a regulated means for them to acquire marijuana if they wanted to."

Ringuette is from Edmundston, across the border from Maine, which began legalizing recreational cannabis in 2016. She said she's seen no drastic change in the social fabric there.

She compared using cannabis recreationally to having a glass of wine to unwind at the end of the day.

"Why should they have to go into a back alley to do that?" she asked. 

Stewart Olsen was among four Conservative senators from New Brunswick who voted against the bill. She said she wanted to see more education and addiction programs before recreational cannabis is legalized.

"I think we could have taken the time to do that rather than rush this through," she said.

In New Brunswick, Stewart Olsen is concerned about the risks legal cannabis creates in rural areas not well-served by the health care system.

"If you have people in trouble, it can take months to get into an addiction program," she said.

Stewart Olsen also expressed concern about law enforcement and workplace and transportation safety.

These are all issues that should be dealt with before the legislation is implemented, she said.

Despite these concerns, Stewart Olsen said, she has always been in favour of decriminalization and is more "on the fence" about legalization than opposed to it.

"I don't think our kids should carry a criminal record around for years because they made a mistake or they had done something when they were young."

Forty-six amendments were made to the bill, mostly technical changes, Ringuette said. A few, however, would have significant implications for New Brunswick.

One amendment would give provinces the option to prohibit home-grown marijuana or accept the bill's allowance of four marijuana plants per household.

Another would restrict marketing strategies, preventing cannabis companies from promoting their brands on T-shirts, for example.

The amendments now go to the House of Commons for approval before the bill returns to the Senate for another vote. Health minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor has said provinces will need several months after that before they can start retail services.