Overview
- Justice Minister Scott Armstrong introduced amendments that expand enforcement to peace officers, including conservation officers.
- The bill raises penalties with higher fines and some mandatory minimums, and it adds a potential extra levy equal to double the tax that would have been owed on illegal sales.
- A new offence would hold landlords liable if they allow premises to be used for unregulated cannabis retail.
- Proposed changes aim to streamline prosecutions by allowing courts to rely on observations such as smell or appearance and by accepting Nova Scotia Liquor Corp. certificates as evidence that products were not legally sourced.
- The government frames the crackdown as a public‑safety measure as Mi'kmaq chiefs criticize earlier enforcement directives, and Armstrong underscores that any dispensary outside the NSLC system is illegal.