Brett Bundale talked about the end of cannbis prohibition in the Hamilton Spectator (2017). He proposes the thought experiment that the new providers for cannabis, the seller, will have outlets that are “very chic, very modern” with a clean look to them.
Only 6 or 7 months to go – 7 at the time of the article – before recreational cannabis begins to be legalized throughout the Canadian provinces and territories. The sellers are looking to capitalize on the days right after legalization, as there surely is a dormant market for cannabis that is bond to flourish in a Canada where marijuana use is widely accepted.
But the details as to what the purchase of over-the-counter recreational cannabis will look like is much in discussion and not certain. A lawyer from Ottawa, Trina Fraser, said, “Think more like tobacco as opposed to alcohol…It’s not going to be like you’ll walk in and there are samples.”
There are some hints such as New Brunswick’s with the retail scheme apparently “the most advanced among the province,” Bundale notes, “The province has issued construction specs featuring a standalone brick store with a black awning featuring the CannabisNB logo.”
The staff in the building will inform the potential customers about safe and responsible recreational cannabis use tied to harm reduction. The explanations will include the law of the area.
“In a single day, buying cannabis will go from a black-market purchase, steeped in surreptitious dealings and paranoid dealers, to a modern shopping experience,” Bundale stated, “A drug long condemned as the stuff of street gangs, organized crime and outlaw motorcycle clubs will be branded, packaged and displayed in stores.”
There will be an excise tax as well as consumption taxes too.
Saskatchewan wants or is looking into a private model. Yukon may limit the selling to the outlets run by the government; whereas, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut remain in consultations with the public.
Bundale said, “Governments are also still hammering out exactly how much the product will cost, how much it will be taxed, the minimum age for buyers, where smoking pot will be legal and driving impairment rules.”
A policy analyst at the C.D. Howe Institute in Toronto, Ontario – which states that it is most influential think tank in the nation, in Canada. – named Rosalie Wyonch said, “For the provinces that will go Crown corporation for retail, it’s probably going to be a very polished experience.”
Wyonch stated that the privately sold cannabis outlets will have a variety or a “spectrum” of provisions based on the price tags. CSSDP’s own Jenna Valleriani, who is a University of Toronto Ph.D. candidate said that buying cannabis must be more convenient in order to fulfill the original goal of eliminating th black market.
“For people who have purchased from a friend or acquaintance for 15 years, those are really hard purchasing patterns to shift,” she says. “If you did have to go to a retail shop and wait in line for an hour, that’s likely going to deter people from going there.”
Bundale, B. (2017, December 26). What legal weed stores will look like: ‘Very chic, very modern, very clean-cut’. Retrieved from https://www.thespec.com/news-story/8022569-what-legal-weed-stores-will-look-like-very-chic-very-modern-very-clean-cut-/.
Scott Jacobsen
Member-at-large
Scott Douglas Jacobsen researches and presents independent panels, papers, and posters, and with varied research labs and groups, and part-time in landscaping (lifting, mowing, and raking) and gardening (digging, planting, and weeding). He founded In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal and In-Sight Publishing. He is a Tobis Fellow (2016) at the University of California, Irvine’s (UCI) Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality (Ethics Center). He researches in the Learning Analytics Research Group, works as the Gordon Neighbourhood House Community Journalist/Blogger, researches and writes for the Marijuana Party of Canada, and is a contributor for The Voice Magazine. UCI Ethics Center awarded him with the distinction of Francisco Ayala Scholar (2014) for mentoring, presenting, researching, and writing. If you want to contact Scott, you may inquire or comment through e-mail: Scott.D.Jacobsen@Gmail.com.