It’s a little odd the Licensed Producers would use a press release about cannabis advertising and branding to slam dispensaries and cannabis farmers.
Why? Why use this press release to refer to “Canada’s thriving illicit market” in a negative connotation?
I reached out to the licensed producer association, but have yet to receive an adequate response.
I have one simple question — what do they mean by illegal?
Are they referring to biker gangs and people connected with organized crime or are they lumping in an entire community of, basically, paper criminals?
The people who grow, sell and consume cannabis without the “proper” authority? (The same authority that first criminalized God’s medicinal herb only to turn around and legalize it according to their crony-capitalist standards.)
Are people like the Emery’s or the Jackett’s criminals? There are thousands of others in British Columbia and across the country in the same boat.
They might be illegal, but they aren’t violent. And all of them have expressed their interest in being part of the legal, regulated regime.
So when the LP press release says the proposed guidelines will ensure the “Licensed Producers can compete effectively with Canada’s thriving illicit market,” do they mean the violent gang-related market or are they including the people currently operating dispensaries and growing cannabis?
This isn’t an industry run by biker gangs, as a Simon Fraser University study has shown, 95% of the people in the illicit cannabis market aren’t connected with organized crime.
Judge Phelan, when ruling on the constitutionality of medical cannabis home-grows, said dispensaries are at the “heart of cannabis access.” He found no evidence of biker gangs or other violent, organized crime.
It’s pretty insulting to the entire BC Bud industry to label them illegal when they’re trying their best to be part of the legal, regulated market without bankrupting themselves as LPs.
The LP scheme isn’t without its flaws or criticisms. There are many reasons illicit cannabis producers and vendors are wary of putting all their time, money and energy into Health Canada’s application process.
And what about the recalls? Not all LP cannabis has been proven to be safe.
The press release says, “[T]he recommended guidelines allow legal, Licensed Producers of cannabis – small, medium, or large – to explain to adult consumers why the products they develop are better and safer than those offered by the illicit market.”
Suggesting that dispensaries are by definition unsafe because they don’t have federal regulations in place?
Could not the same be said about independent farmer’s markets across the nation?
Don’t touch that tomato! A federal bureaucrat from Health Canada hasn’t given the okay yet!
I’m honestly surprised they even went there, considering their problems with tainted medicine.