Unreasonable retail prices will not drive people to buy legally As Canadians prepare to celebrate the New Year, the country's provincial and federal governments continue to work on legalizing cannabis. Provided everything comes together according to initial plans, the monumental policy failure that has for decades treated a health issue as a criminal one - otherwise known as prohibition - will finally be over this summer. But a growing question looms as leaders attempt to legislate the substance. At a proposed price point that does not even make the slightest attempt to compete seriously with rates available on the black market, will people actually be convinced to ditch their dealers and do business with legal, regulated retailers? [continues 531 words]
They're great for entertainment purposes, but then again, so are fortune-tellers and horoscopes. If you're looking at public opinion polls to predict things, well, there are wins and there are losses. And lately, more losses. We've got to start looking at polling differently - because though some of the tools get better all the time, the results are not the gospel we pretend they are. Two polls in the past week or so highlights that for me: a Toronto poll suggesting Doug Ford could be competitive in a race against Toronto Mayor John Tory, and a Corporate Research Associates poll about marijuana use in the Atlantic provinces. [continues 533 words]
A Corporate Research Associates (CRA) survey last week probably sent chills down the spines of finance ministers and premiers in Atlantic Canada. After they left Ottawa earlier in the week with a lucrative tax-sharing deal on the sale of legalized marijuana, their visions of windfall revenues were quickly dashed with a reality check. The CRA survey suggests that 20 per cent of Atlantic Canadians plan to buy pot once it becomes legal July 1. It's about the same percentage that uses pot today - illegally. [continues 408 words]
Statistics Canada has tackled a tricky but important question: how much marijuana have Canadians been consuming in the years leading up to 2018's intended legalization of the stuff? This is the kind of thing that hard scientists and engineers call a "Fermi problem," named in honour of the Italian-American nuclear pioneer Enrico Fermi. Our data on the collective consumption of marijuana are pretty sparse. We don't have an easy way to infer the total volume of consumption for the whole country. But as a practical matter we need some estimate, even if we think consumption will double, or halve, when pot is legalized. Investors are gambling on the existence of a marijuana market, measured in dollars, and on some figure for total national demand, measured in tonnes. [continues 782 words]
My favourite moment in the unfurling disaster of marijuana legalization was the one in which First Nations leaders demanded control over pot sales, distribution, regulation and policing within Indigenous communities, and the right to set the laws that will oversee its use by their people. Of course they did. First Nations view themselves as just that - sovereign nations - with the right to govern themselves as they see fit. Why would control of pot be any different than anything else? My second favourite moment occurred just shortly afterwards, when federal and provincial finance ministers got together to divvy up the loot. The gathering reminded me of the scene in James Bond films when the well-dressed hoodlums of SPECTRE sit around a table tallying their proceeds: kidnapping revenue is a pleasant surprise, extortion income is way up, and blackmail is thriving. It took some arguing, but in this case No. 1 - that would be Bill Morneau - agreed to cut the federal take to 25 per cent without having to push a button and have one of the ministers carted away as a corpse. [continues 782 words]
Bill C-45 is horrible legislation which will not achieve its objectives and should never see the light of day. The Senate will do its job and thoroughly study the Bill, but Canadians will be well-served if it is defeated, writes Alberta Senator Betty Unger. It's difficult to remember the last time the federal government and the provinces came to an agreement on revenue sharing in a single day. But that's what happened last week when the feds agreed to give the provinces 75 per cent of tax revenue generated by the sale of marijuana. [continues 787 words]
While details deserve review, it's crucial not to wait for the legalization of cannabis, Marc Gold writes. Bill C-46 would allow police to demand that a driver suspected of having a drug in their body provide a saliva sample. Every holiday season, volunteers for Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada (MADD) distribute red ribbons to remind us of the lives lost due to impaired driving. Look around over the next few weeks, and you'll find them on key chains, car antennas and pinned to jackets. [continues 607 words]
Certain cannabis crimes ... will vanish altogether, thus resulting in less enforcement. The city's claims that cannabis legalization is going to be a big money loser for them should certainly not be taken with a grain of salt, but rather, a few kilos of it. Or, to put it another way, what are they smoking down at city hall? A council committee last week heard the details on administration's latest estimates around the cost of legalization: about $10 million or so a year, or about the equivalent of a one per cent increase in property taxes. [continues 584 words]
The legalization of marijuana promises to provide governments with a tidy little windfall. That's the dirty secret the country's finance ministers didn't want to talk about when they were cutting up the cash this week. But it's true. To hear the provinces talk, you'd think legalized cannabis would be nothing but a drain on their revenues. They complain that the legal pot regime will be more costly to police than the current illegal one - - without exactly explaining why. [continues 605 words]
WHEN politicians talk about the arrival of legal cannabis, they make it sound like it's going to be more trouble than it's worth. Oh, the worry. According to the narrative coming out of the federal and provincial capitals, legalizing pot is going to involve enormous costs with very little return, in terms of tax revenue. There are expected to be increased costs for provinces and municipalities in the areas of law enforcement, public education, health care and addictions treatment at a time when governments of all levels are having trouble generating the revenues needed to sustain core services. [continues 908 words]
It's enough to make you want to roll a big, fat one. The province is attempting to have a regulatory framework in place prior to the legalization of marijuana on July 1. Weekly, maybe daily, the confusion grows over what the brave new world of legalized weed will look like. That, in my view, is perfectly understandable as the clock loudly ticks toward Ottawa's July 1, 2018, deadline for legalization of wacky tabacky. The feds have said that the date is hard and fast. Our government is taking them on their word. [continues 639 words]
So, pot czar Justin Trudeau, realizing his actual street dealers were on the verge of a revolt, turned to his Mr. Big, Bill Morneau, and told him to divvy up a more saleable split of the profits from upcoming pot deals. When profits are projected to be in the billions, honour among thieves, and we say "thieves" with all due respect, begins to lose its lustre. After all, it will be the street dealers who will be taking on the majority of the risk, meaning all those premiers hypnotized by dollar signs who will have to set up their own turf, build their own drug outlets, collect the juice from the sales, and deal with law enforcement should the criminal element invade their space. [continues 501 words]
Feds up profit split on pot deals So, pot czar Justin Trudeau, realizing his actual street dealers were on the verge of a revolt, turned to his Mr. Big, Bill Morneau, and told him to divvy up a more saleable split of the profits from upcoming pot deals. When profits are projected to be in the billions, honour among thieves, and we say "thieves" with all due respect, begins to lose its lustre. After all, it will be the street dealers who will be taking on the majority of the risk, meaning all those premiers hypnotized by dollar signs who will have to set up their own turf, build their own drug outlets, collect the juice from the sales, and deal with law enforcement should the criminal element invade their space. [continues 500 words]
Canadians never forget the old joke about a pachydermy conference where French scientists discuss elephants' love lives, the British praise and the Soviets denounce "Elephants and Empire," Americans imagine breeding bigger better elephants, and Canadians empty the room with "Elephants: federal or provincial responsibility." Then there's the one about why elephants are big, grey and wrinkly. A: Because if they were small green and crumbly they'd be marijuana, and ending futile patronizing prohibition would cause finance ministers to swoop in and squabble over "Gouging the user: federal or provincial responsibility." [continues 742 words]
It's funny how quickly a criminal enterprise can turn into a legitimate business opportunity. As a federal Conservative politician, even as late as 2015, Julian Fantino was opposed to the legalization of marijuana. In 2004, he even compared weed to murder in an interview with the Toronto Sun, saying, "I guess we can legalize murder too and then we won't have a murder case. We can't go that way." Now, he's partnered with former RCMP deputy commissioner Raf Souccar to open a medical marijuana business, Aleafia Total Health Network. [continues 407 words]
You may think that you will be able to buy marijuana legally as of July 1. You should think again. Conservative senators are threatening to hold up passage of the two bills that would legalize cannabis consumption and toughen rules against abuse. Unless these senators yield, the bills are unlikely to become law in time for the Canada Day deadline. "I think we have to do our job properly, and that means months," Conservative Senator Claude Carignan, the lead opposition critic on the legislation, said when asked in an interview how long he thought it would take the Senate to pass the bills. How many months? [continues 603 words]
"You've come a long way, baby." This is the famous slogan of the Virginia Slims brand - a long, slim cigarette marketed to women as a sign of the progress of feminism and freedom for their gender. Society has also come a long way in its thinking around the marketing of products like tobacco, and campaigns that make it seem glamorous. We have learned that slick marketing images that ran through previous decades did not just influence adults. The Marlboro Man and images like it captured the imagination of kids, romanticizing smoking for another generation. [continues 351 words]
B.C.'s NDP government is right to get ahead of the curve and establish a framework for distributing and regulating recreational cannabis in advance of the federal government legalizing it next July. But the plan still has some shortcomings that should be addressed before we legally light up our sativa and enjoy what one vendor described as its spicy, earthy flavours. B.C. intends to make marijuana available at public and private retail outlets, supplied exclusively by the B.C. Liquor Distribution Branch. The government has determined that people age 19 and over will be allowed to buy it. [continues 341 words]
The P.E.I. Liquor Control Commission is a good choice for managing Prince Edward Island's new marijuana stores. The LCC is well equipped for developing policy and providing oversight. It is also good that the provincial government has decided its pot sales will be conducted from different storefronts than its liquor sales. It just gets the right message out there: If it is not good for the PEILCC to sell liquor and pot from the same premises, it's not good for a consumer to mix liquor and pot. [continues 148 words]
