So once upon a time pot (the current name is cannabis, and there are more nicknames for it than for breasts, but pot is shorter) was illegal. It would rot your brain. It was a gateway drug for heroin. It made you unfit for the military, or any other useful occupation. Buying it contributed to crime, organized or otherwise. On and on it went, the moralistic preachers trying to tell kids what not to do. So of course they did. Duh. Maybe this explains much of the last 50 years.
In the process they recreated prohibition. Criminals got rich supplying the various narcotics desired. Police forces had their budgets enriched by tough on crime politicians, and personal pockets lined by various bribes to look the other way. The low level dealers were the ones that mostly got scooped up by the police, mainly because they couldn't bribe them better than the higher ups.
So imagine the pot industry represented by a circle. All the growers, the producers, the transporters, the sellers, the consumers, the money-laundering accountants, police bribes, the whole works. It can be whatever size you like. I don't think anyone really knows how much money, time, or product was involved. Remember, all this activity was illegal, and yet there was a thriving industry. Anybody that wanted to buy pot could do so with little difficulty.
Then came medical marijuana, and a lessening of the social stigma associated with pot. Plus a growing re-awareness of the usefulness of hemp as a product. I remember hemp ropes in my childhood, and nobody thought that was unusual.
There were discussions of de-criminalizing which always fired up the law and order crowd. I think people were a bit surprised when the Liberals promised to legalize it, and actually did so. Now pot stores, oops, cannabis stores are springing up like weeds.
It's been happening thing for a while. There is a cannabis store in the local Co-op mall. It was "opening soon" for the longest time, and now it's open. One of my neighbours and I always joke that she was going to check it out. Maybe she has, I haven't asked. I have never seen anyone going in or out.
What what got me started writing this was going into the bakery in Glenmore Landing. It used to be a regular stop, when exiting off 14th st was easy. That area has been under construction for years, it seems, and I'm mildly amazed any of the stores are still in business. Friday, for complicated reasons, that turned out to be the store.
One of my friends used to work in the tea shop right beside the bakery. It changed owners then went out of business. My friend had to find other work, and has done so. It was empty for a while, now there's a cannabis store opening soon. It's the biggest one I've seen yet.
Most are small storefronts in what seems like every strip mall in town. I'm just assuming the same is true across Alberta and the rest of Canada. I mentioned our local Co-op, and the Woodbine Safeway is not to be outdone. It's a common thing, and yet, outside one specific time and place, I've never seen anyone going in or out. The exception was the first store opening in Willow Park, a small shopping mall near the Anderson LRT station. The lineup was huge! Hundreds of people. Nothing since, though I'm pretty sure that store is still there.
None the less I'm baffled by the whole situation.
Somewhere, the money appeared to renovate all those storefronts, buy products, pay the staff (I assume they're being paid in money not product.) and deal with all the paperwork. Remember that circle I mentioned earlier? Assume all of that goes into the now opening stores. Is the industry really big enough to support all those stores? What money manager thought this would be a good investment? I sure hope it isn't any that are taking care of my investments.
Imagine you are a pot user. That might be easier for some of my readers than others, and no judgement here. You probably have a regular supplier, products you are familiar with, an established price, the whole works. Why on earth would you drop that to go into a storefront where they will check your ID? I can't see how it would be any cheaper, since your local dealer likely doesn't pay any rent for a storefront. Do you believe that the government supplied pot is going to be better quality than what you already buy?
Imagine you are someone who has, for whatever reasons that seem good to you, not bought your own pot. You know you could get it, you chose not to. Maybe you take a hit on a joint going around at a party and that's enough for you. In any case, if you haven't bought it, why would you start buying it now, just because it's legal? The novelty? Nostalgia? Your troubles have learned to swim in the booze, and you need something stronger?
Why would you buy it in the face of workplace drug and alcohol policies that ban working under the influence of drugs such as booze, pain medication, and yes, pot? If you travel to the USA in particular, their border Nazi-wannabes are just as down on pot as they ever were. Forget a small amount in a bag or pocket and you are in a world of hurt.
I can't imagine anyone stupid enough to put Canadian legal cannabis on a credit card, but you do know that the card is American, and the border people can search your credit record, right? Even though buying pot is legal here, they can deny you entry. Do you believe the next Conservative government won't de-legalize cannabis? (If you believe there is a next Conservative government, you probably want them to do this, then seize the records and do a pot-head search and jail effort.)
What I'm saying is that I don't see that circle growing any bigger. The current users keep using and maybe they buy from the new stores and maybe they don't. But new users? Or maybe that circle is a whole lot bigger than I ever imagined, and all these storefronts are going to thrive. Maybe all that money flowing through legitimate channels, getting taxed, is going to be a bonanza for the various governments, and that's why it was done. Maybe it's just me being an old boomer buddy-duddy.
The only people I can see making any money out of this are the accountants and lawyers that handle all the paperwork with those stores opening up, the mergers that will be happening (you heard it here first) and the legal battles.
I wish the government had brought in electoral reform and got rid of our antiquated first past the post system rather than legalizing pot. But if they were going to go down the legalizing pot road, I wish they'd been a bit more open minded. In that case, they should have looked at all the products that were criminalized because of morality, and think about how to separate crime from morality.
We should have tackled all drugs and treated them similarly. Booze, tobacco, pot, heroin, prescription pain medication, whatever, all of them treated consistently, and with controls on minors, and safe use considerations. The sex trade, which I have previously ranted about. Gambling. Set the appropriate zoning by-laws in place, create oversight mechanisms just like other professions. Educate kids in school that use of drugs has (so many puns and none intended) it's ups and downs.
So yeah, I'm baffled by the whole thing. I don't have any photos that relate to the cannabis trade. Winter has arrived here, so you get warm New Zealand photos from much earlier this year.
Deadwood of the Day
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