 Can you explain us what's happening in Canada around cannabis right now? Yeah, absolutely. So we're moving to legalized cannabis. So how it works is we have kind of a federal Cannabis Act, which lays out minimums, right? So the minimum age of access is 18 years old, for example, and then the provinces across Canada and territories actually have the powers to kind of adjust those. So what we're actually seeing across Canada is, you know, different ages of access, different distribution models across Canada. So it's kind of like a natural experiment happening. Well, we'll see how these different models are impacting things like usage rates and other things. You know, some of the details of that model are things like maximum possession for adults set at 30 grams, that will have a whole regulated system of production and distribution. There's a lot of really interesting pieces around young people. One of those being that for young people under the legal age of access, they're decriminalizing possession of under five grams of cannabis, which was a, you know, a pretty big step forward. Especially in Canada, we know that young people 18 to 25, followed by young people 12 to 17, actually have the highest number of drug-related arrests in Canada, and over 80% of those are for cannabis possession alone. So legalization in and of itself has a massive, massive potential to really kind of change the game in terms of, you know, how we're criminalizing young people for, you know, really, you know, things that actually don't indicate that they're, you know, bad folks just for possessing cannabis, but actually have very substantial impacts on the kind of their trajectories in the future. One of the main arguments, as far as I know, of the through-the-government legalized cannabis was to protect young people. So what, how do you see the regulation model really to protect young people? So if that's a really, really complex question, and I think it's really interesting because I think when we hear protect young people are, you know, what we reach to is more restrictions. So we think in order to protect young people, we just have to layer on all these rules, but actually what, you know, what we've been advocating for, what Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy of advocating for is the inclusion of young people in those policy decisions. So in fact, actually, protection perhaps looks like having access to education, improving young people's health literacy so that they can make choices, and if they're going to choose to use cannabis, they can do it in ways that are a lot more safe. And then other things around that is thinking about, you know, when you set age of access, for example, there was a debate in Canada about that being as high as 25 years old. You know, what happens when you're criminalizing the most, the highest users in a country of cannabis when you're moving to legalize it? And perhaps protection in that case looks like including people over the age of 18 and 19 in a legal market so that they have access to regulated and tested products so that they know what they're getting, that, you know, at the point of purchase, there will be interaction, conversation, you know, harm reduction, you know, opportunities for that kind of interaction that is missed when we're purchasing off of the, you know, the underground market. So I think that protection for me really looks like, you know, improving our education, you know, ensuring that we're not, you know, sticking to the same kind of fear-based approaches, which we're kind of seeing still happen here and just slightly repackaged to look really shiny and new, but really the undertones are still stigma-based and still fear-based. I think that they're, you know, because, you know, we're so concerned about this protection around young people, there still is a lot of worry that we're going to, like, normalize cannabis. But I think that, you know, there is some benefits to normalizing it, and it's really about normalizing the conversation. You mentioned the importance of including people who are affected by policies into making dead policies. So how do you see the process that led to legalization of cannabis in Canada? Was it inclusive? Was it transparent? So I think that the Canadian government really did a very extensive consultation. I think their external task force that really kind of, you know, visited all provinces and territories and really did try to bring diverse stakeholders to the table. You know, I think they did a really good job. I think the report was really clear and really reflected what, you know, what we heard in a lot of those consultations. With that said, you know, I think that there needed to be a few pushes to ensure that they were including particular, you know, groups of, you know, people who are using drugs, young people, especially young people who are using cannabis. What the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy did was we actually organized our own roundtable and we invited the task force to come to our roundtable. So we just wanted to include that because they had such an emphasis on protecting youth that they were actually prioritizing youth in that process. So since then, we've been kind of carving out a new relationship, I think, with the federal government and they've been listening to us in ways that we've never experienced in, like, the history of our organization. Can you speak about regional differences across Canada? Like, what different purges, different provinces took on the regulation of cannabis? Yeah, absolutely. So each of the provinces, because of the way our constitutional powers are divided, the provinces are actually in charge of things like distribution, things around consumption, public consumption, those kinds of things. So we see that with our alcohol model. So across Canada, you know, if you visit different provinces, you'll notice there are different kind of bodies in charge of the sales and distribution of alcohol. So in Canada, we're seeing a variety of different models and I'll just pull on a few different ones. So for example, in Ontario, the age of access is 19 and that is parallel with the age of access for alcohol. And they're going to have the government running the online stores. So online stores are really, really important, especially if you're living in, like, Northern Ontario, right? You don't maybe have access to those retail sites and then the actual retail stores will be private so that they'll be licensed by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission and they'll operate kind of like on a private model. Places like BC, age of access is 19, also parallel with alcohol and they're doing a mixed model approach. So similar to their alcohol distribution model where they have both BC liquor and private retail stores, the same thing is going to happen with cannabis and BC as well. So they're going to have a mix of both public brick and mortar shops as well as private and then the government will control the online retail stores. Quebec is a really interesting kind of sub case and so their age of access currently is 18 but a new government was just elected in that wants to actually up that to 21. So if it was pushed up to 21, that would be the highest in the country and would supersede any kind of minimum ages of access for alcohol across the country. And currently they're going with a completely government run model. So it would be government in charge of both online and on the ground distribution shops. What's really interesting in the case of driving under the influence so there's a parallel impairment bill being revised and introduced as well and in Quebec they've actually implemented a zero tolerance for all people with THC in their system to drive. So considering we don't actually have the science to be able to measure impairment, this actually brings up a lot of really important questions around are we perhaps criminalizing folks for simply using cannabis but who aren't driving impaired, who maybe are consuming on Sunday and driving on Tuesday but they still will test over the threshold of THC in our system because it stays in our body for about seven days. So Quebec is the only one that has an outright ban for all folks. Places like Ontario are doing under the age of 21 is zero tolerance and for novice drivers. So we're seeing a bit of variations but I think Quebec is definitely one of the most restrictive models. So that generally are the three kinds of models that we're looking at, either a mix of public and private, entirely private with government oversight or entirely government run. What do you think will be the public health impact of cannabis legalization in Canada? It's a really hard question because I think what we're seeing in the States is sure there's a slight uptick in adult use but nothing's exploded, that youth use has stayed pretty consistent. And so I think we could also argue that the U.S. also operates on a more kind of commercialized model. So in here we're really kind of basing our model on principles of public health and safety. So I think we can anticipate perhaps even better outcomes. There actually is not going to be a lot of places that will be ready to distribute cannabis. So we won't actually have very many cannabis retail stores yet and it actually might take up to 18 months to get those actually implemented across Canada. So we're going to have legalization, we're going to have to likely access online for a little while, which isn't the worst thing in the world. But yeah, so and then another kind of public health kind of net gain that I think we can also anticipate is kind of building on the growing research around cannabis substitution. So using cannabis in lieu of or to reduce the use of other substances. So we're already kind of seeing that, but we just don't really understand the mechanisms behind it as well. So I think one thing we could anticipate is if we're tracking other alcohol use, tobacco use and other substance use that we maybe could see a decrease in those things, which would actually be a public health gain if you consider kind of the harm's risk profile of cannabis compared to other substances. What will be the most interesting questions in the first let's say three years of legalization? What do you expect that will be interesting to answer and see the results? Yeah, so I mean for me the research that we're doing right now looks at folks who are living on the downtown east side who are using cannabis to reduce or eliminate the use of other drugs. For me I think it will be really important to not just think about how cannabis legalization is affecting the general population, but really narrow in on these more marginalized voices. That when we're talking about legalizing cannabis, is it really legalized if a gram costs $10? Is that really accessible to all segments of the population? What we're seeing right now is that the folks that we're talking with are accessing cannabis through these free distribution programs that have popped up downtown and then they're also going to illegal dispensaries because they're able to buy grams for $3-4 kind of those bottom of the bin strains. So what happens when we shift into a completely legal and regulated model? And because of the way wholesale pricing works out, because of regulations on how low the pricing can actually be for the sale of cannabis, I think there's going to be really important implications for vulnerable and marginalized populations. I would say that many people are concerned that cannabis legalization only benefits the policy and the privileged people. Are there any specific policies that can tackle this or that can address these problems and maybe distribute the benefits to the vulnerable groups of society? Yeah, absolutely. So it's really interesting because if we look at the medical cannabis market that's kind of our blueprint for what the industry itself will look like. Predominantly, of course, like white and male driven and some of these companies are quite big. So there are some really important questions about how do we ensure a more inclusive market? How do we, for example, get these illegal dispensary operators to transition into the legal and regulated space? So I think that those questions are really important. But I think that there is some truth to the statement that legalization will benefit few. We're seeing some really amazing initiatives come out of the United States. I know Steve was talking about Massachusetts today and I think that they're an excellent example. They have an equity program there where they're expunging all of these past records for things that are legal in their new system and they're also letting them jump the queue in terms of applying for licensing to be able to sell cannabis and produce cannabis. So from where I stand, I think that there needs to be more mechanisms put in place by the federal government as well as provinces and they need to be working together to talk about what expungement looks like, especially for simple possession, especially for people that have been charged since 2015 when we introduced the legislation. So thinking about what are the mechanisms that we can apply there to not just eliminate criminal records but also ensure that we're having fair access to and participation in the legal and regulated market. Otherwise it will be dominated by few and there are a lot of things that we have to be proud of in Canada is that we have a really big, I'm going to say proud, but a really big underground illicit economy that BC cannabis, they have predictions that the underground cannabis economy is worth $7 billion. So how do we ensure that those growers that have been growing cannabis for 20 years to access the new and legal market, like maybe they want to be micro producers but how do we help them get from A to B and I think that's going to be really, really critical in ensuring a more diverse market. Thank you very much.