crop

Licensed Producers Losing Battle for Cannabis Community

The licensed producers must be getting desperate if a recent op-ed appearing in the Toronto Star is any indication.

In it, the same boring, groundless accusations are once again levelled at dispensaries and compassion clubs.

Only this time, with a level of hysteria bordering on the absurd.

Author Ronan Levy, lawyer and founder of Canadian Cannabis Clinics, must be completely unaware of the term “Brand Suicide,” because if he were he never would have paraded his disdain towards potential customers the way he has.

Far from being seen as the global gold standard of cannabis-related regulation, as the author asserts, the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) was universally panned by the cannabis community. Including the legal one he belongs to. There’s a reason why the cannabis community has been so successful at suppressing the full implementation of the MMPR.

“The main economic cost associated with the proposed MMPR would arise from the loss to consumers who may have to pay a higher price for dried marihuana. The analysis assumes a price increase from an estimated $1.80/g to $5.00/g in the status quo to about $7.60/g in 2014, rising to about $8.80/g, with a corresponding average annualized loss to consumers due to higher prices of approximately –$166.1M per year for 10 years.”

Source: Canada Gazette

Did you notice that? The MMPR architects deliberately engineered it to fleece nearly $1.7 billion from patients — many of whom are on fixed incomes – over 10 years. A little economics lesson: when a group of people get together and plan to raise the price of a particular good or service, that’s called a cartel.

And cartels are illegal. Full stop.

Levy laments the nearly $1 billion invested in MMPR companies, conveniently leaving out the fact that the vast majority of those firms, headed by experienced Medical Marihuana Access Regulations (MMAR) growers, will never see the light of day.

Health Canada has deliberately stalled the licensing process, restricted approvals and if the regulatory impact analysis statement is to be believed, will only ever license 61 companies. This leaves thousands of entrepreneurs and business owners, many of whom have faithfully served this community for decades, without jobs and places of business.

The real problem and cause of the LPs‘ financial struggles is not unlicensed dispensaries. Far from it, dispensaries operate a national distribution system that any competent LP CEO would recognize as a major asset.

However, in their collective Stockholm syndrome, these failing LPs lash out at their customers and potential allies. We here at CLN ask you, what simpletons have they employed in their marketing departments who would think that was a good idea?

Levy insists that LP cannabis is superior because it is tested and ostensibly free from mould, viruses and pesticides.

Congratulations on meeting the bare minimum.

If anything was proven in Allard v. Canada, it was that the cannabis produced by the many thousands of licensed MMAR growers across Canada is also free from those things and growing conditions are spotless.

But you know what the LPs didn’t do? Organically build a multi-billion dollar industry and the globally recognized ‘B.C. Bud’ brand based on outstanding quality. No, they expected to have that handed to them on a silver regulatory platter as the RCMP and other state agencies quite literally imprison and exterminate the industry forebears who created it.

Welcome to fascism.

“The Fascist State lays claim to rule in the economic field no less than in others; it makes its action felt throughout the length and breadth of the country by means of its corporative, social, and educational institutions, and all the political, economic, and spiritual forces of the nation, organized in their respective associations, circulate within the State.”

Source: The Doctrine of Fascism, by Benito Mussolini

So by all means, LPs and Ronan Levy, continue insulting your customers and distribution system. Continue calling for violence against peaceful people who only want to provide a quality product to willing customers (and who have been doing so far longer than you). Continue parodying a massive and thriving industry that produces billions per year, while offering a tiny system that pales in comparison as a preferred alternative.

I’m sure at some point we will come around and realize that your thuggish and criminal tactics are really out of a true concern for our safety.

Footnote(s)