Hundreds of Canadians have taken to the streets to celebrate the legalization of recreational marijuana following a nearly century-long ban.

Canada officially became the first industrialized nation to legalize the drug on Wednesday following a two-year push by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government, which hopes to bring dealers out of the black market and into a regulated system. 

Cannabis connoisseurs appear to have embraced the new system as massive queues formed outside many of the 111 legal pot shops now open around the country.