After decades as a marijuana renegade,
British Columbia is eagerly anticipating the federal government’s bill
legalizing marijuana.
Growing marijuana
has become a backyard tradition in B.C. and the number of medical
marijuana dispensaries in Vancouver and Victoria rival Tim Horton’s
outlets. Politicians, entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens are convinced
marijuana offers unprecedented economic, social and health opportunities
as Ottawa gets ready to introduce its legislation.
Vancouver-based Tantalus Labs, which grows
medical marijuana in greenhouses, released a report this month that
said the industry could create 15,000 jobs in B.C.
It
said B.C.’s illegal marijuana market provides 40 per cent of Canada’s
black market and is worth $2.7-billion, with 85 per cent of that going
to organized crime.
Dan Sutton,
executive director at Tantalus, said he’s worried B.C. is lagging behind
Nova Scotia, Ontario and Alberta in developing a legal marijuana
industry and could lose out.
“B.C. bud
is a household name, globally,” said Sutton. “We have a storied cultural
history associated with cannabis and it’s time for us to leverage that
brand.”
None of B.C.’s provincial political parties have touted marijuana legalization in the May 9 election campaign, he said.
NDP Leader John Horgan said he supports legalization. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot,” he said in a recent interview.
Horgan has studied marijuana policy and the opportunities from legalizing the drug.
Last
year, he sent two of his most senior caucus members, Carole James and
Mike Farnworth, to Washington and Oregon to view how those states
implemented and adapted to legal marijuana use and sales.
“We need to be prepared here in B.C.,” Horgan said.
Horgan
said he’s met with the B.C. Government Service Employees Union about
marijuana sales. The union has 4,000 members at government-run liquor
stores and provincial liquor distribution outlets.
He’s also met with operators of private beer and wine stores, pharmacies, marijuana dispensaries and craft beer brewers.
“We need to find a way, a (sales and distribution) model that, I think, is a hybrid of all those things,” Horgan said.
He said he supports the sale of marijuana for recreational users at government liquor stores.
Stephanie
Smith, the union’s president, said it has formed an alliance with
private liquor store operators to lobby for the distribution and sales
rights of recreational marijuana at their outlets. The union has met
with B.C.’s Liberal government and the NDP, she said.
There are 198 government liquor stores and about 670 private stores in B.C.
Liberal
Leader Christy Clark said she has three concerns about marijuana once
it becomes legal: she wants organized crime out of the business,
assurances that legal marijuana is safe and of high quality, and that
it’s kept away from children.
Clark
said in an interview last week she doesn’t want people to believe that
there are no risks associated with smoking pot because the government
has legalized it.
“Just like alcohol,
it’s got a lot of harms associated with it, so I want to make sure we do
everything we can to keep it out of the hands of kids.”
Green Leader Andrew Weaver said the Greens will support marketing opportunities for B.C. craft marijuana growers.
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