The goal of legalized cannabis shouldn’t be corporate gold
The focus should not be on the mode of distribution and who will reap the economic benefit
July 15, 2016
As the government crawls towards legalization with the appointment of a task force, my tempered enthusiasm has started to wane, replaced by dismay. I see countless interested parties and stakeholders lining up to cash in on cannabis dollars. Canada has a tradition of overregulation and one can already sense that the government is poised to place a myriad of restrictions on production and distribution. The more complex the regulatory framework, the more likely the market will be overrun by multinational corporations, Crown agencies and the heroes of big business. If excluded from the new market, the underground will continue to flourish. If the fallback position is that anyone who does not comply with the rules of the market must be dealt with by the criminal justice system, then we have not achieved legalization.
