I don't know if it was ever mentioned, but Canada actually criminalized marijuana before the U.S. (1923 vs. 1937). Back in the 1920s, Canada fancied itself as promoter of drug control and was setting the bar.
At the time, there was a bill going through to criminalize opiates (including codeine, although that was later repealed), and someone wrote "Cannabis indica" just prior to the bill being passed. To this day, it is still unknown who wrote it on and why there is no record of even a discussion regarding criminalizing marijuana at the time. Marijuana use was not common back then, and the science of the day was that it was fairly harmless.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/mariju...-why-1.2630436
Quote:
There's also no reason to think there was any science behind the decision. The major report of the era, and it was seven volumes in length, was Britain's Indian Hemp Drugs Commission report, published in 1894.
"Moderate use practically produces no ill effects," according to the report, and the evidence the commission heard "shows most clearly how little injury society has hitherto sustained from hemp drugs."
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It's funny that a law was passed which has had such an effect on Canadians (and maybe the world) because some twat decided to push his own agenda undemocratically like that. A law which essentially started the need for a black market for the product and sub sequentially gave organized crime a foot in the door into drug distribution.