Weed shops set to open as Canada legalizes marijuana
Pure Sunfarms, a corporation in Delta, British Columbia, has pulled tomato and pepper plants from its greenhouses in favor of growing more-lucrative marijuana.
DELTA, British Columbia — Mat Beren and his friends used to drive by the vast greenhouses of southern British Columbia and joke about how much weed they could grow there.
Years later, it’s no joke. The tomato and pepper plants that once filled some of those greenhouses have been replaced with a new cash crop: marijuana. Beren and other formerly illicit growers are helping cultivate it. The buyers no longer are unlawful dealers or dubious medical dispensaries; it’s the Canadian government.
On Wednesday, Canada will become the second and largest country with a legal national marijuana marketplace. Uruguay launched legal sales last year.
It’s a profound social shift promised by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and fueled by a desire to bring the black market into a regulated, taxed system after nearly a century of prohibition. A worker at Pure Sunfarms uses a high-volume cannabis trimming machine to turn out well-formed marijuana buds.
It also stands in contrast to the United States, where the federal government outlaws marijuana though many U.S. states allow medical or recreational use for people 21 and older. Canada’s national approach has allowed for unfettered industry banking, interprovince shipments of cannabis, online ordering, postal delivery and billions of dollars in investment.
Hannah Hetzer, who tracks international marijuana policy for the New
York-based Drug Policy Alliance, called Canada’s move “extremely significant,” given that about 25 countries already have legalized the medical use of marijuana or decriminalized possession of small amounts of pot. A few, including Mexico, have expressed an interest in regulating recreational use.
“It’s going to change the global debate on drug policy,” she said. “There’s no other country immediately considering legalizing the non-medical use of cannabis, but I think Canada will provide almost the permission for other countries to move forward.”
At least 109 legal pot shops are expected to open on Wednesday across Canada, a nation of 37 million people, with many more to come, according to an Associated Press survey of the provinces. At first, they’ll offer dried flowers, capsules, tinctures and seeds, with sales of marijuana-infused foods and concentrates expected to begin next year.
Some provinces have chosen to operate their own stores, similar to state-run liquor stores in the United States; others have OK’d private outlets. Most will let residents grow up to four plants at home.
Canada’s most populous province, Ontario, won’t have any stores open until April, after the new conservative government scrapped a plan for state-owned stores in favor of privately run shops. Until then, the only legal option for Ontario