Both bills are likely to face opposition among members of Parliament, but the Liberal government nonetheless expects the legislation to be enacted by July 2018, Canada's CBC predicted.
The law was tabled on Thursday, and would allow adults over 18 to possess up to 30g of dried marijuana.
"Criminal prohibition has failed to protect our kids and communities and we need a new approach", said Bill Blair, the government's point man on the issue and a former police chief. "To that end, we look forward to working with the government to ensure that branding allowances properly balance informing consumers while not appealing to those under the age of 18".
The legislation proposes to allow storefront sales of pot, to retain a separate medical marijuana system and create tougher driving laws for drugs and alcohol, the Toronto Star reported.
They would also be permitted to grow up to four plants per resident for personal use, as well as make legal cannabis-containing products at home. The proposed Cannabis Act introduces penalties for two new criminal offenses: "Giving or selling cannabis to youth" and "using youth to commit a cannabis-related offense".
The main question for licensed producers is the extent to which they can advertise and market their products.
The main goal, the government said, is to control the production, distribution, sale and possession of marijuana, and keep it out of the hands of criminal organizations.
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A federal official said the current holders of licences will have a head start once the market is opened up to recreational users, while stating the federal government will add staff and resources at Health Canada to speed up the approval process for new producers. That's slightly lower than the drinking-age minimum of 19 in most provinces. Canada joins Uruguay, the only other nation to have fully legalized recreational marijuana (Portugal has had great success with its decriminalization of all drugs).
With some of those key elements still need to be worked out, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the move to legalize marijuana will be done expeditiously but carefully.
Canadian youth have higher rates of cannabis use than their peers worldwide.
"There's never so much demand to go the other way, especially when it's 40 below here (in Canada) and 70 degrees there", he said.
"We are moving from a prohibitive regime to a regulated regime", said a senior federal official.
In the USA, meanwhile, lawmakers introduced bicameral legislation this month aimed at reining in Washington's own pot prohibition.
Now see if United States President Donald Trump doesn't have to build another border wall just to keep people in. The four new recreational states, which grant cannabis freedom to adults 21 and older, joined Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Washington, D.C., and OR in ending decades of the failed policy of marijuana prohibition. But exporting and importing marijuana will remain illegal without a valid permit for special purposes, such as medical marijuana, which is legal in Canada, and industrial hemp. Goodale said Canadian tourists "should never lie" to border guards and suggested he had raised the issue with USA officials.
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