As Canada heads towards the legalization of cannabis later this year, an industry expert has compared unlicensed weed delivery services to cockroaches. Ian Dawkins is the acting president of the Cannabis Commerce Association of Canada. He believes that regulators will not be able to eliminate illicit operators.
“They are like the cockroaches of this biosphere,” Dawkins told the CBC. “You will never destroy a dude on his bicycle with a cellphone delivering weed.”
He believes that once legalization comes, tight regulations on legal businesses will create a lucrative market for unlicensed ones. Governments are “setting themselves up for a lot of competition from the grey market,” he said.
“If you’re a law-abiding citizen and you go to the Ontario cannabis store and there’s nothing on the shelves, you pretty much feel entitled to dial up your guy. That’s pretty much the end of enforcement at that point,” he added.
Police Cite Lack of Resources
While much of Canada is still creating cannabis regulations, Vancouver, B.C. passed a medical marijuana bylaw in 2015. Since then, unlicensed pot shops and delivery services have popped up along with legal ones. Illicit firms operate openly, often advertising their businesses with street placards and store signage. Vancouver Constable Jason Doucette said that police can’t keep up with enforcement of illegal operators.
“Although these online (and) storefront dispensaries are essentially trafficking controlled substances, there is not enough manpower and time to conduct these investigations due to the sheer number of these operations,” Doucette said. “Police resources are very limited in terms of investigating cannabis offenses, among the other workload that members have been given.”
In Vancouver, bylaw compliance officers regularly issue citations to illegal businesses. But city officials say that the tickets, which carry a fine of $1,000, get