Advertisement 1

'An awful lot of expertise': Black market marijuana growers shouldn't be shut out of legal market, says task force chair

Black market marijuana growers should be included in the legal market as they can provide valuable expertise as it evolves, says the chair of the task force on weed legalization

Article content

Black market marijuana growers should be included in the legal market as they can provide valuable expertise as it evolves, Anne McLellan, chair of the federal government’s task force on legalization, said Monday.

McLellan said the Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation, whose recommendations were broadly adopted in the government’s proposed Cannabis Act, concluded that previous criminal convictions during marijuana’s century of prohibition “shouldn’t be an automatic bar to them coming into the legal system.”

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

“We didn’t want all those people excluded automatically from the possibility of participating in some way,” McLellan, now a senior advisor at Bennett Jones LLP, said in an interview with the Financial Post on the sidelines of a conference on cannabis regulation organized by the Ryerson University in Toronto.

Article content

The task force’s November report called on the federal government to set up a system that allows various-sized producers to participate, including independent and craft growers.

“There are lots of people who are producing now illegally — we talk about artisinal and craft producers — we want a diversity of producers,” McLellan said.

“There’s an awful lot of expertise that’s outside the legal system right now and you wouldn’t want to lose all that.”

Recommended from Editorial
  1. The draft Cannabis Act would ban advertising that can be seen by youth, prohibiting companies from conventional and social media outreach.
    Marketing restrictions to help small marijuana brands compete against deep-pocketed players: panel
  2. Canadian banks are steering clear of involvement with the burgeoning marijuana industry.
    ‘Turning green into green’: Payment startup aims to capitalize on banking void for marijuana companies

Some Canadian pot activists, including Marc and Jodie Emery, have expressed their disappointment that the draft legislation sets up a system that favours “big marijuana” because the federal government will strictly regulate and license who can produce the plant for sale. Under the current medical marijuana regime, Ottawa has handed out some 40 licences to produce, a small fraction of the number of applicants. 

Article content
Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

However, McLellan points out that producing, manufacturing or selling pot are not the only economic opportunities in the coming multi-billion dollar legal marijuana market.

“There are other ways for people to be involved in this industry. People focus on production or manufacturing, retail, and that’s all important, but that’s only the most visible part,” she said.

“A lot is going to happen here and there are so many access points for people to be involved.”

There are also a plethora of weed-related businesses —from fertilizers to security services to payment processors — carving niches in the space ahead of legalization expected in July 2018.

Tyler Anderson/National Post
Tyler Anderson/National Post

McLellan said the task force was not mandated to examine the question of whether to grant amnesty to those convicted of marijuana offences, even though that had been part of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s previous platform on ending the prohibition.

Currently, all employees of licensed producer applicants must disclose previous drug-related convictions and Health Canada considers the severity of the conviction in determining whether the individual poses a risk to the system.

Advertisement 4
Story continues below
Article content

Ultimately, McLellan told a panel at the Ryerson University, the decision on the degree to which black market operators can participate is up to the federal government when it draws up more specific regulations. 

“There are people on the activist side who are disappointed. But I think they should celebrate what has happened to date and work with everybody in this space,” she said.

“But people have to understand that legalization was never going to happen without regulation because we do not sell product to consumers without consumers having the basic information to know whether it’s safe.”

sfreeman@postmedia.com

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

This Week in Flyers