The announcement follows a commitment made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his election campaign last year and was timed to coincide with '4/20 Day', the unofficial 20 April holiday of pot partakers the world over. Speaking at a special session of the UN General Assembly in New York, which focused on drug problems around the world, Canadian health minister Jane Philpott said that introducing legislation to decriminalise and regulate the sale of marijuana would go a long way towards breaking the profit model of criminal gangs and drug dealers in Canada and alleviating pressure on the criminal justice system.

Landmark laws

If enacted, the legislation will make Canada one of the largest Western countries to allow widespread use of the drug. The use of medical marijuana is already legal in Canada, but police officials have been quick to emphasise that current laws criminalise the sale, possession and consumption of recreational marijuana are still in effect.

Regulation

Toronto police chief Bill Blair has been named as the governments go-to consultant on the new legislation, which will need to strike a delicate balance if pot profits are to be kept away from criminal gangs. Mr Blair has compared the sale of marijuana in Canada to current regulatory models for the sale of alcohol: 'We control who it's sold to, where it's sold and how it's used. And organised crime doesn't have the opportunity to profit from it,' he commented.

Sources: BBC; The Guardian