Twice this summer, licensed cannabis facilities have caught fire.
In Nanaimo, Royal Green Acres Manufacturing, a company in the last stages of becoming an LP, went up in smoke.
And in July, an electrical fire at a licensed grow near Courtenay managed to kill several pets while it burned to the ground.
Yet, these fires are apparently nothing to worry about. The real danger is in the “illegal marijuana operations.”
Despite hundreds of dispensaries across the country that haven’t put the public at risk (but, in fact, have served the public by offering quality cannabis), the LP lobby group, Cannabis Canada, is urging government authorities to shut down all dispensaries.
The reason? One explosion at a dispensary sending one man to the hospital.
One explosion out of the hundreds of dispensaries that exist, and the LPs are lobbying the government.
“There is no time to waste,” they stress, one explosion at one dispensary “underlines the need for governments to be acting swiftly and decisively to protect citizens.”
But does it?
Could we not apply the same standard to the LP fires? Or what about the LP recalls?
And these guys are regulated! What’s the point of government regulation if you can’t completely eliminate risk?
The explosion at Tweeder Medicinal emphasizes the need for regulatory standards to ensure people aren’t putting themselves and others at risk.
Dispensary owners and craft cannabis producers have been asking for regulation. First they were ignored by the Conservatives, and now they’re still subject to the same “organized crime” propaganda from Trudeau’s “progressive” Liberals.
But if the fires at licensed facilities are proof of anything, it’s that even government regulations won’t eliminate risk.
Uncertainty is unavoidable. It is a fact of life. Insofar that regulatory standards will keep extraction crews from engaging in risky behaviour, the best means are always market-orientated.
When has bureaucracy ever outperformed free markets?
If there’s any takeaway from the Toronto dispensary explosion, or the other fires, it’s that government regulation won’t “protect citizens,” it will merely raise the costs of doing business.
Bureaus can’t calculate like a business, consumers can’t cease paying for unsatisfactory services.
Meanwhile, Cannabis Canada’s press release demanding that governments shut down all dispensaries based on one mishap won’t win them any points with the cannabis community — their apparent customers.
Perhaps dispensaries should release a statement calling for the shut down of the LPs until Harper-era regulations can be gutted and we can be 100 per cent sure more pets won’t die in any fires.
What’s needed are industry standards, but it’s a fallacy to think the federal government will be effective at providing this.
For, the federal government were the ones that prohibited cannabis in the first place. If you want to blame someone, point the finger at Ottawa. But don’t ask them for help.