Pivotal phase for marijuana ahead

Legalizing recreational use could unleash $22.6B industry

TORONTO • It’s Sunday afternoon and Toronto’s Centre for Social Innovation is packed full of marijuana enthusiasts perusing tables of goods.

Everything from marijuana-infused barbecue sauce to medicated body rubs is available at Green Market, where artisans peddle their various craft cannabis products.

Such events, which sell to patients and casual users alike, operate within a foggy regulatory environment. Selling marijuana is illegal unless you are a large-scale producer licensed under Health Canada’s medical marijuana regime.

However, licensed producers are only permitted to sell dried cannabis flower and oils, in spite of a Supreme Court ruling last year that said Canadians have a right to access medical marijuana in all of its forms.

“We only carry products that are inaccessible in the current legal medical program,” says Lisa Campbell, Green Market co-founder and a marijuana consultant at Mobile Revolutions.

“So for patients we are the only place they can find edibles — it’s not available from any licensed producer.”

The year ahead is expected to be a pivotal one for Canada’s burgeoning marijuana industry, as the federal government is planning to table legislation in the spring that will lay out the ground rules for a legal, recreational market.

“Canada will be the first G7 nation, in 2017, to legalize, regulate and restrict access to recreational cannabis,” says Brendan Kennedy, president of B.C.-based marijuana producer Tilray.