Pubdate: Fri, 11 Mar 2016
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2016 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Mike Hager
Page: S1

POT MAGNATES EYE THE BIG SMOKE - TORONTO

More of Vancouver's illegal cannabis dispensaries are expanding their
operations to Toronto, eyeing a larger market with zero regulations,
especially with new bylaws on the West Coast threatening to disrupt
their business.

Vancouver's pot shops have grown steadily in the past several years,
topping 100 before the city decided to pass bylaws designed to both
regulate them and reduce their numbers.

The industry has also taken off in Toronto, with dozens opening there
in recent months and those within the sector saying Vancouver is
playing a major role.

Ryan Williams, co-owner of the Canada Bliss Herbal Society chain,
said he had always planned to open up dispensaries in Toronto, but
Vancouver's decision to regulate - not raid - pot shops led him and
his two business partners to open their first dispensary in the city
in April, 2015.

Last November, while at a cannabis conference in Las Vegas, Mr.
Williams said he met several people from Toronto who told him "you'll
be fine, you'll be safe" if he entered the market in Canada's largest
city.

"We let the other people go in and blaze the trail, then we try to go
in behind them and try to operate with better business practices," he
said. "I'd love to open one in Calgary, but I'm not going to be the
first one to do it because I don't want the trouble."

Mr. Williams launched two Canada Bliss locations in Toronto in the
past month and plans to open several more over the next two months. He
is one of dozens of cannabis capitalists who first joined Vancouver's
initial green rush and are now training their sights on Toronto.

There is no concrete data on the illegal sector, which operates
outside of the federal government's mail-order medical marijuana
system, but industry insiders say the number of Toronto dispensaries
has now grown from about a dozen tucked- away businesses to 60
locations in less than a year.

Dana Larsen, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Medical
Cannabis Dispensaries, estimates that more than half of Toronto's pot
shops are owned by B. C. entrepreneurs. Most of them sell famed "B. C.
bud," sales of which, he said, have "always flowed west to east and
north to south."

Mr. Larsen said there is overwhelming demand for the dispensary model
in the city that could sustain many more shops than the roughly 100
operating in Vancouver - which city hall expects to winnow down to two
dozen licensed operations by the end of the year.

Toronto's top medical officer is expected to report back to city
council by June with recommendations on how to best regulate the
shops, but the city is months away from considering regulations
similar to those passed last June in Vancouver.

As legalization looms under the new federal Liberal government, police
say they monitor dispensaries but have a host of other enforcement
priorities.

The Prosecution Service of Canada, which handles all federal drug
cases, said only three dispensaries have been busted in Toronto in the
past two years.

In January, Goodweeds dispensary and smoking lounge in Toronto was
raided by police. The storefront, a franchise of the Vancouver-based
Weeds chain, reportedly drew a public complaint that resulted in the
investigation into the shop and lounge.

It operates as a bar and sold concentrated cannabis extracts or "dabs"
to anyone over 18 without proving a medical need.

Still, Goodweeds soon reopened and resumed selling cannabis products,
as dispensaries on the West Coast have often done after such warrants
are executed.

"Toronto is a massive city, one of the largest in the world and
certainly in North America. [ Police] have got bigger fish to fry than
medical cannabis dispensaries," said Kirk Tousaw, a B. C.- based
lawyer who was part of the team that won a constitutional challenge
last month, prompting a rewrite of Canada's current medical marijuana
rules.

Vancouver's illegal dispensary sector, by far the biggest in the
country, would drastically contract if the city follows through with
its plan to shut down 60 or so shops come April 20 - the day pot
enthusiasts around the world celebrate the drug.

That's when the grace period ends for those who can't secure a new
business licence. So far, only 16 applicants have made it to the
second of three licensing stages. The first new business licence is
expected to be issued this spring.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tousaw said three dozen people have approached him so
far this year asking for advice on how to open a successful dispensary
in Canada's most populous urban centre.

"If there's a demand, people are going to rise up to meet that
demand," he said. "It's a great deal better that they're doing it
through dispensaries than how people were getting medical cannabis
before, which was through friends, acquaintances or even street dealers.

"Why would [ Toronto's government] become too troubled by the fact
that the public is getting largely what they want?"
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