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A8 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 17 OcTOber 2019
Frustration and pride in Canada after a year of legal pot

By GENE JOHNSON, ELAINE 250 legal shops operat-
THOMPSON and ROB GIL- ing in British Columbia by
LIES now; instead, they have
VANCOUVER, British Co- only about 80 private stores
lumbia (AP) — The weed and seven government-run
is expensive, the selection shops. Through July, legal
is limited, the black market sales in B.C. were a meager
persists, and licensed stores $25 million. Alberta, with a
are scarce. smaller population, hit $145
It's one year into Canada's million.
experiment in legal marijua- "Everybody still uses their
na, and hundreds of legal neighbors and their back-
pot shops have opened. yards," said Susan Chap-
While many residents re- pelle of the British Colum-
main proud of Canada for bia Independent Cannabis
bucking prohibition, a lot Association.
still buy cannabis on the sly, Nevertheless, the legal
because taxes and other is- market has fans. Vancou-
sues mean high-quality bud ver resident Sarah Frank,
can cost nearly twice what who used to grow her own
it did before legalization. marijuana plants, loves that
Much of the drug's produc- she can walk into a clean,
tion and distribution over welcoming, legal shop and
the years has been con- walk out with a few grams
trolled by outlaw groups, of her favorite cannabis,
including the Hells Angels, actor Seth Rogen's House-
and replacing such crimi- plant Sativa brand.
nality with safe, regulated "You don't feel like a crimi-
sales is a key goal of legal- nal," said Frank, 41. "I have
ization. friends who can't travel
Yet legal sales in the first to the States because 20
year are expected to total years ago they got busted
just $1 billion, an amount with a joint."
dwarfed by an illegal mar- Some who want to get
ket still estimated at $5 bil- In this Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019 photo, a customer sniffs a display sample of marijuana, in a tam- into the legal business are
per-proof container secured with a cable, sold at Evergreen Cannabis, a marijuana retail shop,
lion to $7 billion. in Vancouver, B.C. still waiting. With legaliza-
"One customer told me, 'I Associated Press tion looming last year, Chris
love you and I want to sup- Clay shut down his gray-
port you, but I can't buy all aging requirements and ensure far-flung communi- cal marijuana never was market pot shop on Van-
my cannabis here. It's too uneven quality to the slow ties can access the market allowed by law, about 100 couver Island for what he
expensive,'" said Jeremy pace of licensing stores even if they don't have a dispensaries operated in thought would be a few
Jacob, co-owner of Village and growers across most of licensed shop, have been the city before legalization months, eager to apply for
Bloomery, a Vancouver pot the country. underwhelming, at least arrived. a license and reopen. A
store that feels more like a Canada allowed provinc- partly because consumers Around the province, au- year later, he's still waiting.
museum gift shop, with its es to shape their own laws are reluctant to pay with a thorities have visited 165 Some of his workers went
high ceilings, graceful light- within a federal frame- credit card if that transac- illegal dispensaries in the on unemployment and
ing, tidy wooden shelves work, including setting the tion might come to the at- past year and warned eventually found jobs else-
and locked white cabinets minimum age and decid- tention of U.S.-based banks them to get licensed or shut where. He's barely avoided
hiding packages of mari- ing whether to distribute or border guards, said Me- down. Despite some raids, bankruptcy, and though
juana. "The black-market through state-run or private gan McCrae, board chair the government has been local officials have finally
producers are being well retail outlets. Some have of the Cannabis Council of reluctant to close them all started handling applica-
rewarded by legalization." done better than others. Canada industry group. before more licensed shops tions, he says it will likely be
The nation has seen no sign The result: There now are Nowhere are the chal- open. another three to six months
of increases in impaired more than 560 licensed lenges of legalization more Licensing has been glacial, before he's back in busi-
driving or underage use stores across Canada, but pronounced than British though, thanks to a change ness.
since it joined Uruguay as more than half are in Al- Columbia, which has had in power in the provincial "It's very frustrating," he said.
the only countries to legal- berta, the fourth-largest a flourishing cannabis cul- government and cities be- "Tourists have been driving
ize and regulate the sale of province. ture since U.S. military draft- ing slow to approve zoning up and down the island
cannabis to adults — those Ontario and Quebec, dodgers settled there dur- and other requirements, all summer, saying, 'Where
over 19 in most Canadian which together make up ing the Vietnam War era. partly because the prov- can we go? Where can we
provinces. Delegations two-thirds of Canada's They grew what became ince has no tax-revenue- go?'"
from other countries, in- population, have only known as "B.C. Bud," high sharing agreement with For Mike Babins, who runs
cluding Mexico, have visit- about 45 shops between quality marijuana cher- local jurisdictions. Regu- Evergreen Cannabis, the
ed Canada as they explore them. In Newfoundland, ished by American con- latory hurdles have also Vancouver shop where
the possibility of rewriting Canada's easternmost sumers. made it tough for B.C.'s Frank buys her Seth Rogen-
their own marijuana laws. province, pot shop owner In Vancouver, which has many small growers to be brand weed, it's just fine
But officials promised le- Tom Clarke said he's about 2.2 million residents and is licensed; instead, produc- that legalization is develop-
galization would be a pro- to hit $1.5 million in sales but Canada's third-largest city, tion is dominated by large ing slowly.
cess, not an event, and isn't making any money, there was tacit approval corporations churning out "Everyone's watching us,"
they weren't wrong. Kinks thanks to rules that limit him of marijuana even before pot by the ton from massive he said. "If anything goes
abound, from what many to just an 8% commission. legalization. Though store- greenhouses. wrong here, we're screwing
consider wasteful pack- Online sales, designed to front distribution of medi- Regulators hoped to have it up for the whole world."q