Government needs to promote opportunities in cannabis production
The B.C. government is being hoisted on its own petard — its tough-on-pot strategy to prepare the way for marijuana legalization may be hindering the potential economic boon.
By choosing to dwell on increased enforcement and the challenges rather than opportunities that recreational cannabis present, the NDP administration now struggles to switch from public scold to pot promoter.
The marijuana millionaires, the voices of satisfied U.S. consumers, and the success of cannabis businesses have all drowned out those who maintained that legalization was the road to Sodom and Gomorrah.
And it’s beginning to dawn that the land of B.C. Bud is running the risk of missing the bus — surely a departing Greyhound — in the Green Rush set off by the advent of legal recreational cannabis sales.
Even B.C.’s Princess of Pot, Jodie Emery, has opened her Joint in Toronto!
The prospect of provincial cannabis production mainly in Brobdingnagian greenhouses in the Lower Mainland and a corporate-big-business-dominated market concerns many.
That would kill any chance for the guerrilla growers and producers from the Interior, Vancouver Island or elsewhere transitioning as hoped into the economy with boutique operations.
More than that, it suggests the province did not learn from the experience of American jurisdictions that legalized by setting aside space for minorities, First Nations and those in the black market.
Reaction to Victoria’s announcement last week that local and Indigenous governments will be given the power to veto cannabis production in the Agricultural Land Reserve underscored the problem.
Twitteratti criticism triggered provincial damage-control with calls to opinion shapers insisting this wasn’t another anti-pot message, more reefer madness or save-the-children rhetoric.
It was only aimed at stopping manufacturing-style, cement bunkers and acres under glass: Lawfully growing pot in a field wasn’t the target.
It was a response to the fears from Fraser Valley mayors that we wouldn’t see another blueberry again.
With legalization looming Oct. 17, the government wants to change the tone of the conversation to put development, derivative products, expanded retail sales, micro-production like craft beer and other positive topics on the table.
But it is discovering that it’s tough to pivot to supporting farm-gate pot after talking about the need for more enforcement, the lurking dangers for children, the potential liability for landlords, and generally the pressing need to treat the product like something akin to weaponsgrade uranium.
B.C. is benefiting from the end of the near-century-old pot prohibition — True Leaf, the firm former premier Mike Harcourt’s touts, established itself in Lumby (and will become the largest local employer when its huge facility opens later this year), Tilray set up in Nanaimo, Zenabis is in Delta, and we have seen significant other investment.
There should be much more, however: Ontario should not become the Cannabis Capital of Canada.
Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth is the wrong man to be carrying this issue forward now that the emphasis is on a legal industry and consumption.
It is no longer kosher to simply view marijuana through a public health and policing lens, focusing primarily on criminal conduct such as impaired driving or the pernicious repercussions of smoking.
There are myriad other issues to be resolved: from what edibles and derivatives might be available late next year to more sensible advertising and retail rules, not to mention programs to encourage rural and First Nations production.
It’s time to begin celebrating a product that can be compared with caviar, myrrh or a great Okanagan Pinot, a product that promises so much — euphoria, good eats, balm, investment income and jobs.
The government needs to become much more proactive and stop treating cannabis like some sort of pariah commodity. Replace the policeman with a gardener, someone to nurture a nascent industry — grow it!