Cannabis, Reconciliation, and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: Prospects and Challenges for Cannabis Legalization in Canada

Abstract

The provisions of the federal Cannabis Act came into force on 17 October 2018, opening a new era of cannabis management in Canada. We examine cannabis in Canada through the lens of reconciliation and the rights of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. There is potential for Indigenous communities to benefit from cannabis legalization, but also a very real risk that the new legal framework will simply perpetuate existing injustices. We show that the new legislation is inadequate both in terms of lack of consultation with Indigenous communities, as well as in terms of substantive provisions — and omissions — in the legislation itself.

Contesting cannabis: Indigenous jurisdiction and legalization

“…Cannabis plays an important role in Indigenous culture and medicine, with evidence suggesting the use of cannabis and hemp for a variety of purposes in the pre‐contact Americas (Koutouki and Lofts ). Indigenous organizations such as the National Indigenous Medical Cannabis Association (NIMCA ) and the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation (, ) assert the traditional role and the spiritual and medicinal significance of cannabis to First Nations culture.…”

“…The document further notes the compatibility of this approach with existing collaborations that target contraband tobacco activities in Indigenous communities. Cannabis legalization has been likened on many fronts to federal tobacco regulations and enforcement activities, with the 2014 Tackling Contraband Tobacco Act interpreted as a move to criminalize much of the First Nations tobacco industry (Barrera ; Koutouki and Lofts ).…”

“…This includes a focus on how Canada’s legalization regime sidelines social justice issues in favour of a focus on public health and safety (Cox ; Valleriani, Lavalley, and McNeil ; Wesley ). Further supplementing critical commentary surrounding the disproportionate impacts of cannabis criminalization on racialized peoples, select research has emerged to discuss the legalization regime and implications for Indigenous peoples from a perspective focus on reconciliation, Indigenous rights, and settler colonialism (Koutouki and Lofts ; Wesley ). My research extends this critical work by focusing more exclusively on jurisdictional issues, policing and enforcement, and implications for Indigenous‐settler relations emerging from the legalization of cannabis in Canada.…”

The Criminalization of the Cannabis Plant: Decolonizing the Harmful Enforcement

“…The war on cannabis that was largely supported by the West, especially the UN and the US, has infiltrated countless nations throughout the world. Indigenous peoples have often been the ones most harmed by cannabis criminalization through structural violence even when cannabis has been safely used by their ancestors for many aspects of their life including for food, medicinal healing, religious ceremonies, social activities, and clothing (Koutouki & Lofts, 2018;Owusu-Bempah, 2021). Anticannabis policies miss the opportunity to use the medicinal plant for tax revenue as some countries and US states have started to do like California, Canada, Colorado, Oregon, Portugal, Uruguay, The Netherlands, Spain, and Washington (Spithoff et al, 2015).…”

Immune Responses Are Differentially Regulated by Root, Stem, Leaf, and Flower Extracts of Female and Male CBD Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) Plants

“…This plant was initially used for textile and rope production due to its resistant and malleable fibers, and for its medicinal properties, already described in 77 AD by Pliny the Elder, as "the decoction of the root in water relaxes contractions and pain in joints and cures gout and similar evils" [2]. It is currently used in ceremonial, recreational, therapeutic, and medicinal applications across the different cultures of the world due to its psychotropic and nonpsychotropic activities, which contributed to the plant spreading from the center of origin to almost all regions of the world [3,4].…”