Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news!

Subscribe I am already a subscriber

You are using software which is blocking our advertisements (adblocker).

As we provide the news for free, we are relying on revenues from our banners. So please disable your adblocker and reload the page to continue using this site.
Thanks!

Click here for a guide on disabling your adblocker.

Sign up for our daily Newsletter and stay up to date with all the latest news!

Subscribe I am already a subscriber

CAN: "Industry faces downturn five years post-legalization"

When Abi Roach thinks about the 20 years she spent fighting for Canada to legalize cannabis, she says pot legislation is like a clenched fist. The analogy, which Roach first heard from a former Toronto councilor, represents the tight grip on the cannabis market that legislators held for centuries. It meant Roach had to exploit a grey area of the law to run her popular cannabis consumption space HotBox, which opened in 2000, and its customers were accustomed to looking over their shoulders for cops before walking through the door.

Roach has been a stalwart in Canada's cannabis industry as a longtime advocate for legalization and queen of an empire that eventually spanned 15 different businesses, including a magazine, a tour company, and lines of pot accessories and apparel. While regulations and attitudes have loosened since Canada legalized recreational cannabis five years ago, Roach said policy constraints and industry response mean there is still "a ton of room to go" before the industry reaches general acceptance.

"It's the closed fist that slowly opens as we prove ourselves to society as being just a normal part of everyday life," she said, as the fifth anniversary of cannabis legalization approaches on Oct. 17. "The world isn't exploding; the chickens aren't going to fall from the sky if people are consuming cannabis. "Five years into it, you're really seeing that cannabis is an industry that is viable." The signs of that viability are everywhere. Cannabis shops dot some of the most coveted strips in Canadian real estate. Alberta- and Ontario-based giants have expanded their medical pot businesses into Europe. The domestic recreational market is valued in the billions.

Cannabis legalization has had wide-reaching effects and made its use more accessible and acceptable. Yet the razzle-dazzle days where money was no object and sky-high demand was expected are gone, replaced by a sobering reality: legalization has fallen well short of expectations.

Read more at bnnbloomberg.ca

Publication date: