Canada legalizes adult-use cannabis nationwide under the Cannabis Act, becoming the first G7 nation to do so

On October 17, 2018, Bill C-45 (the Cannabis Act) officially came into force across all ten Canadian provinces and three territories, ending 95 years of federal prohibition that began in 1923. Passed by the House of Commons and approved 52–29 by the Canadian Senate in June 2018, the law made Canada the second country in the world after Uruguay—and the first G7 nation—to legalize recreational cannabis nationwide.

How Canada’s federal-provincial framework works

• Federal production & possession rules: Health Canada licenses commercial cultivators and processors, enforces plain child-resistant packaging with standardized THC warnings, and allows adults to possess up to 30 grams (1.06 ounces) of dried cannabis (or its equivalent) in public.
• Home cultivation: Federal law permits households to grow up to 4 cannabis plants per residence from licensed seed or seedlings (though Quebec and Manitoba enacted provincial restrictions).
• Provincial retail & age limits: Each province sets its own retail distribution model (public, private, or hybrid) and minimum purchase age—set at 18 in Alberta, 19 in most provinces, and later raised to 21 in Quebec.
• Cannabis 2.0 (2019): Exactly one year later, on October 17, 2019, Canada’s second phase of regulations took effect to authorize edibles, extracts, and topicals.

Photo: Adobe Stock. Later contextual stock: Fire & Flower cannabis store interior in Strathmore, Alberta, Canada, April 30, 2026; not a photograph of the 2018 legalization.