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Recreational marijuana use will soon be legal in Canada after the Senate passed  Bill C-45 on Tuesday with a vote of 52-29, according to a CNN report. Bill C-45 stems from a campaign pledge of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to keep marijuana away from underage users and reduce related crime.Canada is only the second country in the world to implement legislation to permit a nationwide marijuana market. In the neighboring US, nine states and the District of Columbia now allow for recreational marijuana use, and 30 allow for medical use. Once the bill is formally approved, adults will be able to carry and share up to 30 grams of legal marijuana in public. They also will be allowed to cultivate up to four plants in their households and prepare products such as edibles for personal use. However, stringent rules will still govern the purchase and use of marijuana. Consumers are expected to purchase marijuana from retailers regulated by provinces, territories or federally licensed producers. Marijuana will not be sold in the same location as alcohol or tobacco. The Canadian government has also implemented changes to their impaired driving laws to address repercussions for driving under the influence of cannabis. The bill set a floor on the minimum age of the consumer at 18 years, and makes the production, distribution, or sale of cannabis products an offense for minors. While provinces can increase the minimum age, the intent is to continue to discourage Canadian youth from pot use, by establishing many of the…

The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) released Industry Circular 2018-1A, which clarified the new law authorizing tax cuts on wine announcing that, for a limited time, producing wineries can take full advantage of the value of the new federal excise tax credits on wine stored at another bonded wine cellar or bonded winery, as if it were removed from the producing winery’s bonded premises, by following an “alternate procedure.” The “alternate procedure” is needed because many wineries use an alternate facility to store their wine, such as custom crush facilities or bonded wine warehouses, and a strict interpretation of the bill text disallowed these facilities from claiming the tax credit. A black letter reading of the bill meant that for calendar years 2018 and 2019, any wine that was removed by a wine premises that did not produce the wine was not eligible for the new tax credits.  A winery could only apply the new tax credits to wine produced by that winery. If the wine was being held at premises that did not produce the wine, the producing wine premises had to physically bring the wine back to its premises and remove the wine taxpaid from its premises in order to take advantage of the tax credits. Alternate Procedure: Now, the TTB has authorized an alternate procedure, in effect through December 31, 2019, under which wine producers will be allowed to determine taxes on their wine stored (un-taxpaid) at an alternate bonded facility without the wine producer being required to physically receive…