Pubdate: Sat, 24 Dec 2016
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Alexandra Posadzki
Page: B4

BOUTIQUE CANNABIS COMPANIES EAGER FOR A SLICE OF THE POT PIE

Artisanal producers already selling teas, medical rubs under foggy
legislation

It's Sunday afternoon and Toronto's Centre for Social Innovation is
packed full of marijuana enthusiasts perusing tables of goods.

Everything from marijuana-infused barbecue sauce to medicated body
rubs is available at Green Market, where artisans peddle their various
craft cannabis products.

Such events, which sell to patients and casual users alike, operate
within a foggy regulatory environment. Selling marijuana is illegal
unless you are a large-scale producer licensed under Health Canada's
medical marijuana regime.

However, licensed producers are only permitted to sell dried cannabis
flower and oils, in spite of a Supreme Court ruling last year that
said Canadians have a right to access medical marijuana in all of its
forms.

"We only carry products that are inaccessible in the current legal
medical program," says Lisa Campbell, Green Market co-founder and a
marijuana consultant at Mobile Revolutions. "So for patients we are
the only place they can find edibles - it's not available from any
licensed producer."

The year ahead is expected to be a pivotal one for Canada's burgeoning
marijuana industry, as the federal government plans to table
legislation in the spring that will lay out the ground rules for a
legal, recreational market.

There's also a lot of money to be made in marijuana. "The real money is 
in recreational marijuana," says Jay Currie, author of the book Start & 
Run a Marijuana Dispensary or Pot Shop: Wherever it is Legal.

While licensed producers ramp up their production facilities in
preparation for an anticipated surge in demand, boutique cannabis
companies are also eager for a slice of the pot pie.

Virginia Vidal, who sells teas that contain marijuana under the brand
Mary's Wellness, says the boutique industry provides consumers with
far greater choice in terms of available products.

"I can't see my 80-year-old grandma wanting to go and roll up a joint
for the first time," Vidal says. "But she'd be interested in trying
the tea."

While companies big and small prepare for the advent of a recreational
market, consumers shouldn't hold their breath. Expectations are people
won't be able to legally buy marijuana until 2018, at the earliest.

"Once the federal rules are enacted, then the provinces really have to
take the federal rules and overlay that with their particular
provincial rules, like where and how," says Vic Neufeld, the CEO of
Aphria, a medical marijuana producer.

"That's a long process."
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MAP posted-by: Matt