Cannabis Life Network staff writer Caleb McMillan sat on Thursday’s media panel at the Canadian Cannabis Business Week, a conference series dedicated to the medical and recreational industry.
“Cutting Through the Noise: A Journalists’ Scorecard on What Messages are Getting Through and Which Aren’t,” featured Jamie Shaw as moderator, with Ian Mulgrew, columnist with the Vancouver Sun, Mike Gager, a news reporter for the Globe and Mail, Debra Bochardt, a financial journalist for Forbes Magazine, and Cannabis Life Network’s own Caleb McMillan.
The event was private, so there are no recordings, but Caleb’s two-cents attempted to capture the essence of illegal cannabis growers and the struggle of vendors.
“I told them a legalization model was ultimately going to have to form around this market,” he said to CLN. The audience consisted of high-profile business people and bureaucrats.
Caleb mentioned that regardless of whatever the Liberals do, however much power the provincial governments are given — if people with criminal records specific to cannabis are prohibited from competing in an open, free legal market, then there is no legalization.
A model too restrictive encourages cannabis connoisseurs to break the law. “Going to jail for a plant and its derivatives is not a workable legalization model.”
The Canadian Cannabis Business Week brought together notable speakers to discuss trends in cannabis law, finance, business and state policy.
Throughout the week, guests heard from speakers such as Kirk Tousaw, Susan Boyd, Neil Boyd, Jordan Bateman, Cam Battley, Kerry Jang, Hilary Black, and many others.