Cannabis Post: Doobies to your doorstep
It’s now cheaper to have the makings of a doobie brought to your doorstep by courier than a bundle of organic lettuce.
That word came from the country’s largest legal cannabis company just two days before police raided dozens of the roughly 80 unlicensed dispensaries across Toronto on Thursday.
The takedowns helped clear the hydroponic field for licensed producers like Canopy Growth Corp. — one of about 18 federally authorized, mail-order medical marijuana suppliers in Ontario — eager for new patients.
“Torontonians who are seeking a reliable supply of medical cannabis can now turn to the most affordable solution in the city, delivered same-day to their door, and rest assured there is no question about the legality and origins of their cannabis supply,” said Bruce Linton, chair and CEO of Canopy Growth. The company says patients with prescriptions can receive a monthly dose by courier for $5 a gram mere hours after ordering.
Linton’s sales announcement came out the same day he, along with other licensed producers and investors, met with former police chief and national pot czar Bill Blair at the King Edward Hotel on Tuesday. The Liberal MP has said Criminal Code provisions on marijuana must be enforced even as Ottawa considers a legalized regime.
While city hall clamps down on unlicensed weed retailers, Linton’s low-cost option presents itself as an accessible alternative to the mom-and-pop shops that have mushroomed across the city. Mason-jar marijuana stores, many now reeling from the raids, argue in turn that they have a constitutional right to operate and that corporate growers offer costly, unreliable service for an inferior product.
Unlicensed dispensaries rarely list their product sources, posing a health issue, says Ronan Levy, executive director of Canadian Cannabis Clinics, a pot-focused clinicians’ network.
“You don’t know whether it’s coming from a place that’s been tested . . . You don’t know the integrity of the cannabis when you go to a dispensary,” said Levy, echoing police Chief Mark Saunders.
“There is no quality control on these products. . . . This is about public safety,” Saunders told reporters Friday, noting many dispensaries’ proximity to schools.
Product integrity and familiarity are precisely where small dispensaries thrive, counters Jessie Young, who helps run Canna Connoisseurs, on Church St. near Front St. Patients come from as far away as Guelph, and the Kitchener-Waterloo area, he claims, for the hands-on value and personal touch offered at his storefront.
“You can come here and you can see it, smell it, feel it,” said Young, who happens to hail from Smiths Falls, Ont., where Canopy Growth subsidiary Tweed runs a massive grow-op out of the former Hershey factory. “Now you know why the Oompa-Loompas were so happy,” joked Linton.
Young sees licensed producers as part of an oligopolistic distribution system that narrows down the number of pot strains — only six are available via the same-day delivery service from Canopy Growth’s Torontoarea medical marijuana facility, Bedrocan Canada.
“They want to shut down a not-forprofit that’s helping patients access medication,” said Brandy Zurborg, co-owner of Queens of Cannabis on Bloor St. near Ossington St.
“We’re both kind of left reeling, wondering what to do next,” she said Tuesday, comparing puffing on licenced weed to “drinking Molson Canadian.”
In the wake of the raids, which Queens of Cannabis avoided, the storefront has opted to shut down regular business and is operating, she said, as a patient intake clinic and education centre for the time being.
Canopy Growth’s $5 grams, slightly cheaper than most licensed pot, come with a $10 Canada Post delivery fee for shipment sizes up to 150 grams, and a $35 fee for the sameday courier service. Linton says Be- drocan and Tweed have made “tens of thousands of deliveries” of organic bud since 2014.
The delivery process works like this: a patient with a condition such as arthritis, epilepsy or anxiety visits a doctor, who sends a marijuana prescription via “secure e-fax” to a licensed producer such as Bedrocan — so far Toronto’s only one, though Markham and Vaughan also have legal grow-ups. The producer then puts in a call to the doctor’s office to verify the prescription.
At that point, patients are free to place their orders at a local clinic. For a typical prescription — one or two grams a day — a patient would order between 30 and 60 grams of marijuana each month via Canada Post, according to Canopy Growth.
The federal government has promised to legalize pot for recreational use and introduce a legalized regulatory framework. Currently, however, the only legal source of marijuana is that grown for medical purposes by licensed producers approved by Health Canada. Prescription holders may receive their supply only in the mail.
Only federally licensed marijuana growers in industrial areas of the city can legally produce pot for medical patients.
On Thursday, officers smashed in dispensary doors to slap criminal charges on 90 store owners and employees at 43 locations and confiscate more than 270 kilograms of pot. Among the spoils were $160,000 in cash, 127 kilograms of oils and spreads and 142 kilograms of pot-infused cookies. Dispensaries argue they are operating in a legal grey zone because a B.C. judge struck down Stephen Harper-era rules on patients growing their own plants.
Osgoode Hall law professor Alan Young has said the city is failing to distinguish between medical-marijuana dispensaries that exclusively cater to the needs of seriously ill Canadians and outlets that “jumped the gun and are selling pot in anticipation of legalization.”
The criminal charges — 186 for possession for the purpose of trafficking, and 71 for proceeds of crime — from Thursday’s raids were laid in sync with 79 charges for alleged zoning violations.
Distributors are barred from residential and commercial zones and require a proper licence for food — including the confiscated “Crontella” chocolate paste and “Ganja Blondie” brownies.
About half of Torontonians think marijuana dispensaries should be allowed to remain open, according to a recent poll. With files from David Rider and Betsy Powell