In vancouver, yes you can smoke it in public places but most people don't except around beaches and parks or in dedicated vapor lounges (BYOS, bring your own stash) most people don't give a shit, but some old timers might be give you a stare and quickly look away because obviously marijuana is dangerous like heroin and that you are a thieving junky.
A police officer should you run into one, the worst he can do is take it away from you, if you happened to have a lot of it on you.
To be clear it is illegal to possess marijuana in Canada.
Canada is in a weird state right now where police chiefs are suggesting to the government that it should ticket people smoking on the street instead of arresting them, while the federal government is advancing notion of USA style crack down (recently mandatory minimum jail time for growing was passed).
It's not clear what will happen if police catch you smoking on the street, but my feeling is that it may not be treated as a minor issue like it would have been 10 years ago.
As a Canadian and a retired buddha smoker, I would say United States has beat Canada at it's most sacred national treasure (hockey, basketball too).
No longer can we thump our chest and scream 'BC BUD BEST BUD'. L.A. MMJ surpasses B.C. easily and it's far more relaxed than Vancouver. Far more ridiculously easier to get MMJ.
Have you tried to get medical marijuana here in Vancouver? Doctors prescribe anti-depressants because it works better than medical marijuana.
Don't buy this Canadian propaganda bullshit or somehow we are above United States, if anything, we suffer from heavy market regulation and interference from the government, federal and provincial and then point fingers at America and say look at those barbarians!
How the hell does incompetent government workers who can't get shit done get paid more than highly intellectual human capital in the tech industry, AND get more benefits AND get more job stability? It must be that all of our hard earned money is going towards the upper echelons of Canadian government, with a fat ass mayor taking crack cocaine off the streets by consuming it all and running around like an idiot for one.
It's still forward progress. Why the snark though? Is there anyone who doesn't know the United States isn't socially progressive relative to other western nations? The fact that we're loosening dumb laws is good.
On the topic of marijuana, the US is more liberal than most European countries. In exactly two European countries, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, can you obtain marijuana for medical purposes without risk of a fine or in the worst case ending up in jail.
Portugal also - you can possess it for personal use (medicinal or otherwise) as long as it's under 25g and you don't use it in public. (Same with other drugs there.)
In Berlin, weed is ...liberally treated by the police. A park with a huge refugee population is known for its open-view dope dealers, and the distric parliament is even thinking of using a loophole in controlled-substances laws to open an experimental coffee shop (Germans, read http://www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2013-11/berlin...).
Its pretty tolerated compared to UK and Austria (the countries I have lived in). You regularly smell it in the street, and police don't make such a big deal from anecdotal evidence.
I've on multiple occasions been on a UK street, witnessed a very strong smell of weed with police officers walking along near me, and had them do nothing. That said, I'd personally never take the risk of smoking in public in the UK (though I do know people who do).
Belgium's another country that's very relaxed about it. The friends I have there who smoke have to drive over to NL to buy it (I guess there are street dealers too), but I've stood in the centre of Antwerp smoking a joint chatting to a police officer, and that anecdote matches up with my friends there who say it's very relaxed.
> I've on multiple occasions been on a UK street, witnessed a very strong smell of weed with police officers walking along near me, and had them do nothing.
Whether or not you get busted depends on the personal opinions of the police officer.
There are no legal ways to obtain marijuana in Barcelona. If it's Sativex what you're talking about it's not the same and it was a trial on 600 patiens.
The story is naive, particularly coming from the New York Times. The governor in NY has nearly unlimited power to push through legislation with the budget process.
Its a way for a governor with presidential ambition to earn some progressive street cred. Some sort of highly regulated medical pot regime supplied by police seizures sounds like a very minimal step forward.
