Canada's prime minister has announced that recreational marijuana will be legal to consume in Canada starting on October 17.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement during question period in the House of Commons on Wednesday, a day after the pot legalization bill, Bill C-45, passed by a vote of 52 to 29 in the Senate.
Bill C-45 will now move to royal assent, but the federal government previously promised provinces and municipalities eight to 12 weeks to allow for final preparations.
"We are committed to improving our system to better protect our youth and to take money away from organized crime. That's exactly what we did and we did it in partnership with the provinces," said Trudeau on Wednesday. "We always work in partnership with the provinces and since we passed these measures in Parliament and since we decided to move forward, we've been listening to the provinces who have been asking for more time to implement it. That's why we are accepting the request of the provinces and we be legalizing [marijuana] as of October 17."
The Liberal government had initially planned to have marijuana legalized sooner with the intention of beginning retail sales by July 1. That timeline was pushed back after the Senate requested more time to review Bill C-45.