Why Canada Made Marijuana Illegal: Catherine Carstairs on CBC

Canada made marijuana illegal 94 years ago and no one's sure why

Ninety-four years ago Canada became one of the first countries to ban a substance virtually no one was using. A University of Guelph professor who penned a book on the history of illegal drugs in Canada says after nearly a century of marijuana prohibition, no one is really sure why it was made illegal in the first place.

"We don't actually know," Dr. Catherine Carstairs told The Morning Edition host Craig Norris Tuesday.

A professor and chair of the history department at the University of Guelph, Carstairs is the author of the 2006 book Jailed for Possession: Illegal Drug Use, Regulation and Power in Canada, 1920-1961.

She said there are two competing theories as to why lawmakers banned marijuana in Canada in 1923, but both remain little more than speculation because of a lack of historic evidence.

... read the rest of the story at the CBC