Marijuana became legal in Canada on Wednesday, and authorities are still trying to get used to it.
Toronto’s police have been pretty blunt about the matter, telling people to stop tattling on their neighbours for smoking weed or possessing pot plants.
The directive came in a series of funny tweets, comparing the reporting of smoking or possession to trivial matters, like calling 911 to ask for directions or what one should do with frozen meat in the case of a power outage.
“Do not call police for this,” the tweets read.
Canada is the second country in the world to legalize marijuana (behind Uruguay), but the laws do vary from province to province. In the Netherlands, where marijuana tourism is rampant in Amsterdam, weed is, in fact, illegal, but personal use has been decriminalized.
In Ontario for instance, residents can only buy marijuana online from a government-run site. Then from April 1, privately-run physical stores will be allowed to sell weed.
In the meantime, Toronto Police still intend to crack down on illegal dispensaries, with the Ontario government deeming physical stores selling weed to be afoul of the law until April.
These stores have been encouraged to shut down and apply for a license to sell or risk being shut out of the legal market. With that said, authorities say they won’t be that vigilant against dispensaries that choose to stay open.
“There will not be 100,000 police officers landing in the city of Toronto shutting down every element of a dispensary, but we will be shutting them down,” Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders told the Canadian Press.
It’s a different story in other provinces, where brick-and-mortar stores across the country welcomed the first buyers at the crack of midnight.
Credit: mashable.com
