Canada’s Cannabis Act: Annotation & Commentary, 2020/2021 Edition

Russell Bennett, B.Sc., LL.B., became a lawyer in 1997, prior to establishing a career in film, theatre and documentary production. In 1998, Bennett produced and directed the documentary STONED: Hemp Nation on Trial, which followed the test case and trial of Christopher Clay, owner of Hemp Nation, Canada’s first hemp store. STONED premiered on CBC and was nominated for Best Political Documentary at Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival. Stay tuned for a sequel series in 2022.

In 2004, Bennett created the award-winning multi-character solo play, The Reefer Man, which told the story of a lawyer who was also an underground cannabis grower. Bennett toured the play to Fringe Festivals and professional theatres across Canada.

In 2014, Bennett returned to practice with Bennett & Company, Bankruptcy Legal Counsel for three years, and then worked in fraud recovery law and cannabis dispensary defence.

In 2018, Bennett created his own full-service law firm, Cannabis Law, Barristers & Solicitors, to give entrepreneurs and small businesses the tools to protect themselves and thrive in the cannabis industry. Services include federal and retail licensing applications, defence of regulatory offences, employee issues, intellectual property, land use planning, asset protection and partner/shareholder issues. Cannabis Law also challenges questionable cannabis laws under the Constitution of Canada.

In 2020, Bennett launched Cannabis Law in Canada, a long-format interview podcast featuring in-depth discussions with cannabis industry and legal experts that uncover the realities of the new laws, their impact on business and offering suggestions for change. Episode 1 features co-author Professor Emeritus Alan Young. Bennett posts on matters relating to cannabis and the law regularly on his blog at cannabislaw.ca.

Alan Young is Professor Emeritus at Osgoode Hall Law School in Ontario. He received his BA from York University, his LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School, and his LLM from Harvard University prior to be called to the bar of Ontario.

Professor Young is the Co-Founder and former Director of Osgoode’s Innocence Project, which is a clinical program that guides JD students through the process of investigating suspected cases of wrongful conviction and imprisonment. Up until his retirement in 2018, he also maintained a small practice specializing in criminal law and procedure that is primarily devoted to challenging state authority to criminalize consensual activity. In addition to his work in the area of consensual crime, Professor Young has also provided free legal services to victims of violent crime and to individuals attempting to sue the government for malicious prosecution.

Professor Young has brought constitutional challenges to our gambling, obscenity, bawdy-house and drug laws, and for nearly two decades has provided free legal services to those whose alternative lifestyles have brought them into conflict with the law. He has represented countless numbers of people suffering from AIDS, cancer and multiple sclerosis who were charged after using marijuana for medicinal purposes, and as a result of these cases, the Federal Government was compelled to create a regulatory program authorizing the use of medical marijuana. Furthermore, he was responsible for an early constitutional challenge to the possession of marijuana offence (R v. Clay, [2002] SCJ No 88 (SCC)), which fundamentally changed the public’s perception of the harms associated with cannabis use.

Canadian Lawyer magazine has recognized the contributions Professor Young has made to the law and has named him one of the “Top 25 Most Influential” in the justice system and legal profession in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014. He is the author of Justice Defiled: Perverts, Potheads, Serial Killers and Lawyers (Toronto: Key Porter, 2003).