New age limit for Quebec cannabis won’t stop use, say some 20-year-old

Criminologist fears denying young adults access to pot until they’re 21 will push them back to black market

In 2019, you had to be 18 to buy legal cannabis in Quebec. But as of Jan. 1, you need to be at least 21 — leaving some young adults under 21 frustrated about having their access taken away.

The Coalition Avenir Québec government followed through on an election promise to raise the legal age for cannabis, setting the highest minimum legal consumption age in the country.

Any adult under the age of 21 who could legally buy cannabis in 2019 could now face a fine of up to $100 for possession.

“I had heard a little bit about it in the past, but I didn’t think it was really happening, said Georgia Campbell-Irwin, a 20-year-old Concordia University student who lives in Mile End.

“I didn’t see any kind of advertisements [warning people] or anything like that,” she told CBC Montreal’s Daybreak.

BY CBC NEWS
READ MORE HERE: www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/cannabis-21-age-1.5417783