
Canada’s legal pot is going well - forkLding
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-politics-marijuana/canadas-trudeau-isnt-talking-about-it-but-legal-pot-is-going-well-idUSKCN1RO1ZT
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DKnoll
This doesn't echo public sentiment at all. Many are critical of the way
implementation has happened, whether for or against (at least in Ontario, the
most populous province and the one I base everything that follows on).

Those who are 'for' are upset about the supply issues that have occurred with
the legal supply being limited (long delays), more expensive and often poor
quality (moldy).

Those who are indifferent are annoyed they have not offered any incentive to
municipalities to allow stores (no share of taxes, no increase to enforcement
budgets, no ability to control, limit or place restrictions on store
locations) and made prices high making thus causing no reduction of the black
market.

Those who are 'against' think private businesses selling weed will increase
sale to minors and just generally make a bunch of moral panic arguments.

~~~
rocky1138
I suspect this is some form of reverse survivor bias: the people who are happy
with the service (like me) are not out on the streets cheering. It's
fantastic, it's just not something that we talk about due to the stigma.

I smoked exceedingly rarely before legalization (3 times in my entire life)
and now I smoke often. I'm happy to pay the paltry prices for the amount of
enjoyment I get from it, and I know that the weed I get is safe for me to
consume. It also arrives in a day or two after ordering. Most times I'm
surprised it came so quick!

I'm in Ontario.

~~~
DKnoll
> I smoked exceedingly rarely before legalization (3 times in my entire life)
> and now I smoke often.

You are the boogeyman to the people who oppose legalisation. One of the rare
people who didn't smoke simply to obey the law and are now getting stoned
because it's legal. :P

I think the people who rarely smoked are the most happy, because they are not
worried about a minor price increase but also appreciate the convenience and
legal acceptance.

I am personally happy with legalisation and, as someone who no longer smokes
but realises the relative lack of harm from consuming cannabis (especially as
compared to alcohol), think it is the morally right thing to do.

Despite my own beliefs, public opposition to the rollout is still significant
and definitely worth mentioning especially in a Reuters article that will be
propagated everywhere.

~~~
DanBC
> One of the rare people

We have no idea of the prevalance of this kind of person. There's no research.

(I am in favour of legalisation.)

~~~
DKnoll
It's honestly hard to believe there were people who didn't smoke simply
because it was illegal, even though getting charged for personal amounts of
cannabis in the GTA was about as common as being struck by lightning.

That said I applaud them. That's a very respectable level of restraint and
community-mindedness (I swear that's a word).

~~~
sjwright
The statistical reality isn’t operational for many people. Many people would
not want to even begin to look for an underground supplier let alone deal with
one.

(I am in favour of legalisation.)

~~~
kzcqt
I would've liked to try some drugs, weed included, but I haven't because I
don't have contacts and I don't want to deal with some lowlife who will
probably scam me. If they made weed legal I would probably give it a spin, and
maybe even get hooked, much to my own loss since I, as many other people, lack
self-control.

(I am against legalisation; I don't live in Canada.)

~~~
ZeroFries
Would you also vote to ban fast food, video games, social media, and Netflix?

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gnulinux
Legal pot is not going good anywhere around the world except very few places
like Colorado. This is because politicians insist on not paying attention to
scientific studies and keep doing irrational things. Look at Massachusetts,
one of the first states to legalize cannabis, still handful of legal shops,
only 1 in Boston area. What changed is now a few mega corps (US) or the
government (Canada) are your drug dealers, instead of sketchy randos. It's
impossible to find a thriving free cannabis market. This is absolutely
ridiculous. >70% of Americans support legalization and multiple states voted
for legalization but it's still impossible to thrive as a mom&pop cannabis
shop. When alcohol and coffee are so normalized that people can consume these
drugs even in workplaces, it's simply ridiculous how we treat weed, quite
possibly a safer drug. I'm not even talking about illegal states, because
that's an entirely different story. But what's going on in legal states like
MA et al is bizarre.

~~~
andai
Long time coffee and cannabis user here, I'm curious in what ways you'd say
cannabis is safer than coffee?

~~~
quickthrower2
Well, if you spill hot coffee on you it can hurt a bit.

~~~
andai
I once put a lit joint in my pocket for safekeeping, and burned a hole in my
wallet.

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kryptk
As a consumer of cannabis for several decades prior to legalization, it has
indeed gone very well. I am in Ontario and my first legal online order took 3
weeks, but delivery is now typically 2-3 days.

Brick and mortar just recently launched in this province, it was rushed and
isnt in good shape. Other provinces are faring better in this regard.

The product selection is large, but in stock inventory of lower-priced
products especially tends to be lacking. Some clearly over-priced products are
trying to be the "Apple of weed" and failing, the market should sort that out.

An unexpected challenge of legalization is that new users can get overwhelmed
by choice. Our government has unfortunately repeated the old indica=sleepy,
sativa=energetic nonsense in the official literature despite advances in the
science showing that while these distinctions are great to seperate plant
types they distinguish between effects poorly.

I have been working on a project [1] that attempts to index the scientific
literature and provide a better, evidence-based path towards cultivar
selections. Every endocannabinoid system is different so this will never be
totally correct, but it can at least trim down the options for new users.

[1] [https://www.whatsmypot.com](https://www.whatsmypot.com)

~~~
GordonS
> delivery is now typically 2-3 days

I hear you can often get next day delivery when ordering from the darknet, and
it's been that way for years.

~~~
kryptk
Yes absolutely, the launch of brick and mortar was supposed to satisfy the
"want some right now" crowd but high prices have turned a lot of folks off.

Weedmaps is the defacto "local" black market source in my area, I can have
product in hand within 2 hours from a selection of dealers.

Sellers post their "menus" on the app and leave a phone number or email.
Responses are quick. Delivery is $10-15 usually.

Most will verify you are 19+ when they drop it off, as selling drugs to minors
has historically had stiffer penalties then selling to adults. The laws have
all changed now and the first person was just charged with possession under
the new laws last week.

------
GavinAnderegg
Here in Halifax, Nova Scotia, we’ve had publicly run cannabis stores since
October 1, 2018 and things have been going quite well. Initially there were
massive supply shortages, but those have evened out. The remaining complaint
is that there aren’t enough brick-and-mortar stores in more rural areas of the
province (because only select government run liquor stores can sell cannabis),
but online sales make this less of an issue. The whole thing turned from being
a spectacle to being quite normal very quickly.

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m-p-3
Canadian here, if by well you might massive supply shortage and low quality
product, then yeah it's doing well.

~~~
tonyarkles
In Saskatchewan there were supply shortages at the start, but that took care
of itself by around new years. Quality- and price-wise... I've heard a lot of
people complain about that, but it very much has not matched my experience.
Yes, an 1/8oz costs more than it did when I was in high school 20 years ago,
but the quality has been fantastic.

I mentally compare it to alcohol. A "couple beer" buzz costs me about $1.50,
and I feel wonderful the next day. And at the rate I use it, the $50 bag
(1/8oz) has lasted since about November and isn't empty yet.

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norswap
> Long lines formed on a sub-zero morning last week to buy marijuana over the
> counter from three different shops in Ottawa, the first capital in the
> industrialized world to open them.

Ah yes, Netherlands: a land of barbarians, murder and rampant disentery. Not a
single industry in sight.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
In fairness, the Netherlands does _not_ have legal cannabis. It just has
deliberately lax enforcement.

~~~
norswap
"Illegal but regulated", "Illegal but tolerated". Really, when such things
have been formalized, it's just really, legal — at a less symbolic level than
a proper law maybe, and with limitations for sure, but arguing otherwise is
nitpicking.

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gdsdfe
I think it was poorly implemented, having government controlled stores means
less competition, less actors in the market leading to bad quality, short
supply and high prices ... And a still thriving black market.

~~~
mabbo
It varies province to province. Ontario finally opened private stores April
1st, but it's slow to start up- "Hunny Pot" is the only one I've heard of in
Toronto and it has a line up three blocks long from open to close.

But more stores will open. And gradually, the black market _should_ shrink.
We'll see. I'm just glad we aren't wasting tax dollars trying to enforce
prohibition anymore.

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stevehiehn
Its only been a year and already it's hard to believe there was a time when
people were arrested and went to jail over this. (I live in Vancouver)

------
charleshan
The Candian Government is getting a cut of a large market and will be using
additional tax revenue to improve the quality of life in Canada. It is no
different than how cigarette and alcohol are being sold today.

~~~
DKnoll
In Ontario at least sales of alcohol and tobacco are very different from how
cannabis is sold. Somebody not familiar with the country might say "well
Dylan, that's Ontario, what about the other 12 provinces and territories?" but
Ontario is over a third of the population so really it is the best one to use
as an example instead of discussing the other 12 jurisdictions.

The federal government gets a quarter of the cannabis tax revenues (the
remaining three quarters go to the province) capped at one hundred million
with any overage going solely to the province so it really is a drop in the
bucket at far as the fed is concerned.

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ackfoo
No, it's not, which is largely the fault of moron doctors and the government
who are idiotically conducting a campaign against vaporization.

The primary health risk of cigarette smoking comes from the products of
incomplete hydrocarbon combustion. These cause inflammation (leading to
chronic lung disease) and many are carcinogenic.

An intelligent realist understands that most people are ignorant and prone to
addictive behaviors, and will intervene where possible to substitute a lower-
risk behaviour for a higher-risk one.

Instead, stupid doctors have refocussed their (otherwise appropriate) campaign
against smoking on vaporization, and the government has moronically banned it
in all the same places as smoking.

This stupidity has spilled over into marijuana legalization, causing
vaporization liquids to remain illegal and denying users access to a
relatively safe, measured, convenient dosage format with a long shelf life.

Patients taking marijuana for medical reasons are thereby screwed.

I despise stupid people making decisions in large groups. What a clusterfuck.

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sintaxi
No it isn't. Weed went from a thriving grey market to a black market.

What changed is the government is now acting as a cartel for a very small
number of companies who are allowed to sell legally. The legal companies are
not meeting demand in any way comparable to pre-legalization. Prior to
legalization we had a thriving free market the government wasn't getting a cut
so there was no incentive for the laws on the books to be enforced. Now there
is. The government makes money from weed sales so they have incentive to use
force against those who are meeting the needs of the market.

Nothing got safer for the public. Its just now very risky to sell weed. Screw
everything about how the government legalized weed in Canada. Its exactly as
it was before except now the big companies have the RCMP as their enforcers to
use against their competition.

~~~
wolco
The alleyway deals are probably easier but less common. It is risky to open a
storefront but always was.

~~~
sintaxi
Listen to what I'm saying.

The entire province of BC had just one single cannabis storefront on day of
legalization - despite hundreds of storefronts applying for permits. So
customers went from buying weed in storefronts to having to do alleyway deals
because of legalization.

[https://vancouversun.com/cannabis/cannabis-news/partaking-
so...](https://vancouversun.com/cannabis/cannabis-news/partaking-some-time-b-
c-to-get-just-a-single-cannabis-store-on-day-one-of-legalization)

~~~
RileyJames
Errr? Doesn’t match my experience. I was in BC 3 months before legalisation,
and 3 months after.

Nothing changed on the “legal” date.

But I did hear from one store that they were planning to close down, so they
could legally apply for a licence and re-open. So the transition wasn’t as
smooth as it could have been.

But no one started doing alley way deals “because legalisation”. There was
already a large population who simply saw the stores as middle men, who marked
up prices. Why buy from a store when you know who the store buys from? And why
shouldn’t that continue?

I can buy from the brewery or the liquor store, why should marijuana be any
different?

