Cannabis Industry Chart Promised In 2022 Budget – Cannabis News, Lifestyle

The merging of corporate and government power continues unabated with a “cannabis industry table” added to the federal liberal NDP budget last week.

Three years after Canada legalized cannabis, the landscape is not what many expected. By initially shutting out the legacy market and allowing large licensed medicinal manufacturers into recreational retail, the Canadian cannabis industry lined up to look like our telecom industry. That means high prices, even higher barriers to entry and, as a result, a protected cartel.

Instead, consumers demanded quality artisan products. The LPs, which started out as a sea green monoculture, are now striving to market themselves to the connoisseur.

Therefore, the federal liberal NDP government felt that this country needed a “cannabis industry table.” Entitled “Engagement the Cannabis Sector”

“Budget 2022 proposes the launch of a new cannabis strategy table that will support an ongoing dialogue with companies and stakeholders in the cannabis sector. Led by the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, this will provide an opportunity for the government to hear from industry leaders and find ways to work together to grow the legal cannabis sector in Canada.”

Is a cannabis industrial table necessary?

If you think “stakeholders” include cannabis culture in this cannabis industry chart, then I have swamp land in Florida that I can sell you. In the run-up to legalization, they took little notice of the legacy market. They constantly referred to them as “organized crime.” Sure, some of us have had a chance to talk farce with the Legalization Task. But that’s like allowing children to sit at the adults’ table during holiday dinners.

It also offends the Western legal tradition. We already have laws on the books to run society. And we’ve had them for hundreds of years. Tort law, property law, contract law, commercial law, criminal law. English common law is case-generated law. It evolved from the resolution of actual disputes.

We don’t need parliamentarians who constantly create new laws and regulations. And then empower expensive bureaucracies to enforce them. In the Western legal tradition, laws were procedural and not pre-emptively created by politicians.

Who supports this?

The announcement of a “cannabis industrial table” was, of course, welcomed by industry executives. And from advocates who haven’t learned that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Optimists are sure that the cannabis industry table will solve many regulatory problems with legalization. There is hope that simple packaging and marketing rules will become less stringent. And it’s entirely possible that the big LPs want to make as much profit as the little guys.

But skepticism is justified. Especially if George Smitherman, Chief Executive Officer of the Cannabis Council of Canada and former Ontario Minister of Health, supports the initiative.

Before legalization, Smitherman wanted the government to “tap the black market.” He said, “[D]Do we really want the entrenchment of the people who operated in the shadows as a basis?”

Smitherman was opposed to home growing, even if it was a single plant. He once debated cannabis activist lawyer Kirk Tousaw on CBC. Tousaw argued that legalization that puts people in cages to grow crops is not real legalization. Smitherman called this an “extreme vision.” He said legalization shouldn’t be “creating roles” for the legacy market.

Later, after legalization, he continued to criticize “the illegal world” for mislabeling legal cannabis products.

If you want a glimpse of what this “cannabis industry table” will be about, check out who’s supporting it.

Will a cannabis industry table actually work?

Hiring Health Canada to review legalization should work great. You haven’t started yet. It is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. I will bet my money on the following year.

Whenever they do, we can expect producers of all sizes to demand multiple cannabis law changes. Namely, higher potency levels in edibles and beverages, lower “sin” taxes (especially for CBD products), and changing (or at least clarifying) the rules for lab testing.

But is establishing a table for the cannabis industry so necessary? The Treasury already plans to amend several excise regulations without the need for a lengthy round table procedure. They do not lower or eliminate “sin” taxes. Only change if producers have to pay for them.

No legalization for classic liberals

The 2022 budget also outlines how the government plans to work with indigenous groups to create a new tax framework for their communities. (And it includes cannabis taxes). And while it’s great to see some progress on the indigenous front after hundreds of years of dishonesty, it’s also a reminder of what governments are capable of.

The cannabis industry table will be inefficient. It probably won’t do anything except gobble up taxpayers’ money. Or it’s another attempt to smuggle in an LP cartel. What it won’t be is a progressive step in the liberalization of Canada’s cannabis industry. We already have a process for that. It’s called free markets and common law. We just need politicians and regulators to avoid us.