Will regulated pot industry quash illegal deals quickly?
Colin Perkel writes the upcoming legalization of marijuana is unlikely to kill Canada’s black market — right away, at least
TORONTO From texting a local dealer to dropping into a neighbourhood dispensary or ordering online, Canada’s black market for recreational marijuana has seen significant changes in recent years and, no doubt, will see more as the country hurtles toward a new world of legalization next summer.
What does seem clear, however, is that the illegal market is unlikely to disappear in a puff of smoke come legalization day.
“There’s a huge, complex system out there operating in the world that has been delivering excellent product to people at reasonable prices for 40 years now,” says Donald MacPherson, the executive director of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, an organization based out of Simon Fraser University that advocates for evidence-based policy-making and harm-reduction strategies.
“It’s really the degree to which the regulated system can, over a period of years, encroach on as much of that pre-existing market as possible — that is the key question.”
Talking to users quickly reveals three major strands that make up the current system, starting with the traditional approach: knowing a guy who knows a guy who gets you your pot. It’s familiar, it’s trusted, it feels safe.
More recently, street-level dispensaries have offered a somewhat normal retail store-front experience, though some offer only delivery, but perhaps the biggest change has been in what appears to be a very Canadian phenomenon: the burst of website-based mail-order marijuana suppliers, or MOMs as they are known.
A plethora of websites now feature different cannabis products along with prices and, in some cases, testimonials, contests, specials and freebies.
Most ask for proof of age in the form of an uploaded ID document — 18 or 19 is generally minimum — and payment takes place via Interac. The vacuum-packed product is shipped to the buyer via Canada Post or courier.
Francois, 34, an IT professional in Quebec City, says he now buys exclusively online.
“The convenience factor is what brought me there,” says Francois, who, like other users interviewed for this article, only wants his first name used. “It’s delivered to your doorstep. It’s super easy, it’s super discreet.”
Marie-Helene, 26, a journalist in Montreal who smokes recreationally most evenings and weekends, says she doesn’t expect much will change for her post legalization.
She plans to stick with buying from a guy she knows who sells medical grade weed.
She trusts him, she says, and she enjoys the personal touch — he knows what strains she likes — and what she calls their“professional business relationship .”
“It doesn’t feel super shady,” she says. “It probably sounds silly (but) it’s the same thing as people who enjoy buying stuff in stores — because it’s customer experience.”
Robert, 55, an IT professional based in St. Catharines, Ont., a recreational user for decades, says he now has a medical prescription and can avoid a black market he believes was tied to organized crime.
The illegal market is doomed over time, he says, because every gram sold legally is a gram the black market won’t need to grow.
“Most of my friends can’t wait to purchase legally and are quite jealous that I am currently able to do that,” Robert says.
“Friends who have more libertarian leanings swear they will never buy from the Ontario government (but) I bet that changes. People are lazy and follow the path of least resistance, so if they can buy a couple grams in the same shopping plaza that they are grocery shopping, they are going to do that.”
Statistics Canada data indicate about 12 per cent of Canadians aged 15 and older — or 3.6 million of us — reported in 2015 having used cannabis in the previous year, with 840,000 saying they used it most every day.
Robert, however, says he thinks governments have hugely underestimated the prevalence of use and the Ontario government’s plan, for example, to start out with 40 retail outlets is laughable. Whether the black market shrinks and how quickly, observers say, will depend on what the legal market ends up looking like.
It’s far from clear.
Each province is charting its own course, with some tending toward maximum restrictions in terms of retail outlets, while others talk of stiff criminal sanctions for selling product to underage buyers or near schools.
The challenge facing federal and provincial governments, says MacPherson of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, is the fact that the current system is so large, diverse and filled with expertise — in other words, it is mature.
Across Canada, hundreds if not thousands of small-scale growers along with some large grow-ops supply a seemingly ravenous consumer cohort that includes younger Canadians who have some of the highest usage rates in the world, according to various surveys.
“It’s a really interesting and complex thing that the government is trying to do,” MacPherson says.
“It’s trying to take a very robust, complex pre-existing market and basically put it out of business by coming up with a better robust market.”