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NORTH AMERICA'S CANNABIS CAPITAL COULD SOON BE CANADA

Pot of Gold Seen If Full Legalization Wins OK in 2017

OTTAWA, Ontario - Colorado and Washington state may have jumped ahead in the race to become North America's marijuana kings, but Canada is now positioned to take a lead in the multibillion-dollar industry.

Canadian leaders could legalize recreational marijuana use as soon as next year, potentially opening the door for pot to be sold at pharmacies and province-run liquor stores.  Medical cannabis has been legal in the country since 2001.

Under the new legislation, marijuana growers and distributors in Canada would also find themselves free of the tripwires that make the pot business in the U.S.  risky such as being barred from opening bank accounts or doing business with big-money investors.

"There is a lot of excitement and optimism from marijuana businesses and entrepreneurs in the U.S., who have their fingers crossed that Canada is going to pull this off," says Chris Walsh, editorial director of Marijuana Business Daily, published in Rhode Island.

Canada's expected move to legalize recreational pot won't lead to instant world domination.  But the plan represents a huge market for U.S.  businesses and investors who have already identified an opportunity north of the border, Walsh says.

Two years ago, Seattle-based Privateer Holdings Inc.  became the first American-owned company to open a commercial medicinal cannabis production facility in Canada.  Derek Ogden, chief executive of the Ottawa-based National Access Cannabis network of education clinics, says he believes Canadian pot producers could one day export their product to the U.S.  and, conversely, import weed from the U.S., though he acknowledges that would happen only under a reciprocal trade agreement, and only if the U.S.  legalizes marijuana at the federal level.

Canadian Health Minister Jane Philpott told a United Nations General Assembly in April that the country would introduce legislation next spring to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana.

It would be the law of the land, unlike the state-bystate checkerboard of laws in the U.S.  Although a state may legalize marijuana use, the federal government still classifies pot as a Schedule 1 drug.

Marijuana is a $4.3-billion industry in the U.S.  But in Canada, where there are now fewer than 30 government-licensed companies, it generates no more than $150 million in sales.

Former Toronto police Chief Bill Blair, now a liberal member of Parliament, recently was appointed Canada's marijuana czar by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and asked to figure out where and how pot should be sold.