I<\/span>t\u2019s a true statement that adults in Canada will be able to walk into a store and purchase marijuana in the same way they would a bottle of wine or a donut sometime next year \u2014 when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\u2019s promised plan to legalize cannabis becomes reality \u2014 but only partially true.<\/p>\n When legalization transitions from thought into action next summer, it will also shut some existing marijuana businesses down.<\/p>\n In Ontario, Canada\u2019s most populous province, 150 government-run weed stores will go into business sometime after July 2018. But right now, in Toronto, Vancouver, and other cities, there\u2019s no need to wait. In most of Canada\u2019s major urban areas, there are multiple storefronts in business where adults can walk in and purchase cannabis.<\/p>\n In Toronto, the country\u2019s most populous city, th<\/a>ere are dozens<\/a> to choose from. In most cases, the only requ<\/a>irement to enter is that you be at least 19 years old<\/a> (that\u2019s also the province\u2019s legal drinking age, see). They\u2019re technically illegal, yes, and occasionally are raided by police, but this is Canada \u2014 they\u2019re still around. All a raid means is a few days\u2019 hassle, no worse than your favorite coffee shop temporarily running out of beans.<\/p>\n Whether you purchased your pot in a dispensary, on the street, or via one of Health Canada\u2019s licensed medical-marijuana producers, there\u2019s a place for you to smoke it in public without hassle. Toronto has more than a dozen cannabis-friendly cafes to choose from, some of which have been in business since 2003.<\/p>\n In other words, Toronto already has a small but vibrant marijuana industry. And all of it has to go \u2014 shut down and replaced with government-run shops only, according to strict regulations approved by provincial and city elected officials over the past week.<\/p>\n As the Toronto Star reported on Monday<\/a>, Ontario leadership is serious about those 150 government-run weed stores. Those will be the only places adults will be able to legally buy recreational marijuana. Outlaw stores like Cannabis Culture will have to go (for real this time).<\/p>\n And the cannabis cafes will likewise be made to shut down. The only approved place to consume cannabis in Ontario will be in a private home.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s relatively lenient penalties for lawbreakers will be stiffened and replaced with something stricter \u2014 perhaps actual prison time.<\/p>\n On Monday, Toronto officials signaled their approval of the province-wide plan. Predictably, existing cannabis businesses are apoplectic.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve essentially demonized cannabis,\u201d said Abi Hod, owner of the Hot Box cannabis lounge and a director of Toronto\u2019s Cannabis Friendly Business Association, in comments to the Star. Others had a stronger take: it\u2019s a government takeover.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d have great difficulty thinking of questions to which the answer is \u2018create a government monopoly,\u2019 but certainly \u2018how should we legalize marijuana?\u2019 would not be one of them,\u201d radio host Rob Breakenridge wrote in an opinion piece published by the Global Post.<\/a><\/p>\n Toronto\u2019s current plan to end its nascent weed economy and trigger a possible police crackdown \u2014 of the style seen in the United States among medical marijuana not too long ago \u2014 still needs full approval from the city council, but it sailed through a preliminary committee hearing with only minimal opposition.<\/p>\n The justification for this, repeated at every level of government from Trudeau on down to the local dogcatcher, is that legalization must be done \u201cdeliberately,\u201d in a way that protects children. It\u2019s not clear what threat the current status quo poses to kids \u2014 or why, exactly, existing marijuana businesses won\u2019t get a chance to participate in the above-ground economy.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also little reason to think that a government monopoly will be the only game in town \u2014and that today\u2019s cannabis sellers will go away quietly. Is Canada serious about triggering a crackdown on cannabis by legalizing it? Such an attitude is one American export that Canada doesn\u2019t need.<\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> do you think existing businesses should have a place in the new cannabis economy set for Canada?<\/p>\n The post Canada to Existing Marijuana Industry: Get Lost<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Police are cracking down on existing cannabis storefronts prior to opening government-run shops. It\u2019s a true statement that adults in Canada will be able to walk into a store and purchase marijuana in the same way they would a bottle of wine or a donut sometime next year \u2014 whenContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,50,80,170,1539],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19552,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19551\/revisions\/19552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Canada to Existing Marijuana Industry: Get Lost<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"