Luxembourg to Adopt Canadian-style Public Health Approach to Cannabis Legalisation

From 13 to 15 May 2019, Luxembourg Ministers of Health, Etienne Schneider, and Justice, Félix Braz, visited Canada to discuss the legalisation of recreational cannabis.

This visit formed part of a series of steps, fact finding and analysis already done or planned, especially in the Netherlands, Portugal or Uruguay, under the current Luxembourg coalition agreement providing for the legalisation of recreational cannabis.

As Ministers Schneider and Braz pointed out: "We can learn from other countries' experiences and avoid mistakes from the outset."

During their stay in Canada, Etienne Schneider and Félix Braz had a constructive exchange with the Canadian Minister of Border Security and Organised Crime Reduction, Bill Blair, as well as representatives of the Department of Health, Foreign Affairs and the Service for Public Prosecution, Regulatory and Economic Affairs.

In addition, the Luxembourg delegation was able to visit the Canadian Center on Addiction and Substance Use, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and a cannabis production site.

Regarding the Canadian model, the law of 21 June 2018 ("Cannabis Act") legalises the entire chain, i.e. the production, distribution, sale and possession of recreational cannabis. As of 17 October 2018, the date of its coming into force, Canadian adults were allowed to purchase cannabis produced under license, in the form of grass and oil, from a retailer or (depending on the province) online, to possess 30g of cannabis on their persons and, in most provinces, grow up to four cannabis plants at home from legal seed. Market operators are subject to very strict professional requirements and transport across borders remains prohibited.

Given the health risks, the law has created a rigorous and strict legal framework, accompanied by a state control of supply on demand. At the same time, the criminalisation of the supply of narcotics has been strengthened. Thus, Canadian law created two new criminal offenses punishable by fourteen years in prison: to give or sell cannabis to a young person and to use a young person to commit a cannabis offence. Similarly, new offences for different levels of impaired drug use, including motor vehicle drivers, have been created. The police were also given new powers, such as salivary tests for drivers.

Like the Canadian model, the Luxembourg model should be based on a comprehensive public health approach. For Ministers Schneider and Braz, this is not about promoting cannabis use, but about protecting and ensuring the health and safety of citizens and young people in particular. A strong emphasis will thus be placed on prevention, education and the management of addiction, financed in part by the tax revenues generated by the sale of cannabis.

Etienne Schneider and Félix Braz also insisted that the legalisation of recreational cannabis will, more so than decriminalisation, remove consumers from the illicit market, to reduce in a definite way the related psychological and physical dangers and fight crime at the supply level.