by Lauren Scott

On Sept. 8, Ontario became the first province in the country to announce a framework to legalize cannabis, as the feds plan for legalization by July 2018.

According to a press release by the Ontario government, the province will become the sole-provider of cannabis in Ontario, with plans to open up 150 stand-alone stores by 2020. The online sale of cannabis is set to open next July.

A subsidiary of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) will oversee all cannabis sales to residents 19 and over, both in store and online. These sales will take place in separate locations from where the LCBO’s currently sells alcohol, necessitating the creation of a new network of stores.

In Ontario, the path to legalization is leading towards a marijuana monopoly. The activists, growers and sellers who helped create the pressure for legalization are now being pushed out of the industry they worked hard to legitimize.

But now that there is legitimate money to be made, budding marijuana production corporations are being licensed by the federal government, while small businesses are left to burn out.

The press release states that existing dispensaries, “are not and will not be legal retailers.” As raids continue across the province, Queen’s Park says it will be ramping up enforcement with help from municipal and federal governments, as well as local police and OPP.

Both the federal and provincial are approaching legalization with a law enforcement and “harm reduction” lens, aiming to protect vulnerable populations from the potential negative effects of cannabis use.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale announced Sept. 8 that the federal government is spending $274 million to increase law enforcement efforts around marijuana legalization.

“We are working closely with our partners to ensure law enforcement is well trained, to build capacity across the country and at our border,” Goodale said in a statement.

However, prominent cannabis activists — and even former Liberal cabinet ministers — say that the proposed framework will not eliminate that black market.

“We’re not naïve; we’re not suggesting that you’re ever going to reach nirvana in terms of that there won’t be any illegal sales,” Anne McLellan, former Minister of Justice and leader of the federal task force on marijuana, told MPs at a meeting on Sept. 11.

In fact, some pot activists have told MPs bluntly they will persist despite legal crackdowns, especially with a growing market for edibles.

“If the government is not going to allow edibles and extracts, we’re going to continue to sell them through dispensaries, through the black market,” B.C. activist Dana Larsen told MPs in the House of Commons Sept. 15.

Cannabis activist Jodie Emery spoke with CTV’s Power Play following Ontario’s announcement. She says that the current network of dispensaries doesn’t need to be uprooted in favour of government-regulated green.

“They’re going to spend hundreds of millions of tax dollars setting up a massive bureaucracy to try and reinvent a wheel that’s already rolling and spinning quite fine,” Jodie Emery told Power Play. “It’s insane.”

This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol. 10, No. 1 (Sept/Oct 2017).