Pubdate: Tue, 14 Jun 2016
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2016 Orlando Sentinel
Contact:  http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Note: Rarely prints out-of-state LTEs.
Author: Christopher Guly, Special to Tribune Newspapers

NORTH AMERICA'S CANNABIS CAPITAL COULD SOON BE CANADA

Pot of Gold Seen If Full Legalization Wins OK in 2017

OTTAWA, Ontario - Colorado and Washington state may have jumped ahead 
in the race to become North America's marijuana kings, but Canada is 
now positioned to take a lead in the multibillion-dollar industry.

Canadian leaders could legalize recreational marijuana use as soon as 
next year, potentially opening the door for pot to be sold at 
pharmacies and province-run liquor stores. Medical cannabis has been 
legal in the country since 2001.

Under the new legislation, marijuana growers and distributors in 
Canada would also find themselves free of the tripwires that make the 
pot business in the U.S. risky  such as being barred from opening 
bank accounts or doing business with big-money investors.

"There is a lot of excitement and optimism from marijuana businesses 
and entrepreneurs in the U.S., who have their fingers crossed that 
Canada is going to pull this off," says Chris Walsh, editorial 
director of Marijuana Business Daily, published in Rhode Island.

Canada's expected move to legalize recreational pot won't lead to 
instant world domination. But the plan represents a huge market for 
U.S. businesses and investors who have already identified an 
opportunity north of the border, Walsh says.

Two years ago, Seattle-based Privateer Holdings Inc. became the first 
American-owned company to open a commercial medicinal cannabis 
production facility in Canada. Derek Ogden, chief executive of the 
Ottawa-based National Access Cannabis network of education clinics, 
says he believes Canadian pot producers could one day export their 
product to the U.S. and, conversely, import weed from the U.S., 
though he acknowledges that would happen only under a reciprocal 
trade agreement, and only if the U.S. legalizes marijuana at the federal level.

Canadian Health Minister Jane Philpott told a United Nations General 
Assembly in April that the country would introduce legislation next 
spring to legalize and regulate recreational marijuana.

It would be the law of the land, unlike the state-bystate 
checkerboard of laws in the U.S. Although a state may legalize 
marijuana use, the federal government still classifies pot as a 
Schedule 1 drug.

Marijuana is a $4.3-billion industry in the U.S. But in Canada, where 
there are now fewer than 30 government-licensed companies, it 
generates no more than $150 million in sales.

Former Toronto police Chief Bill Blair, now a liberal member of 
Parliament, recently was appointed Canada's marijuana czar by Prime 
Minister Justin Trudeau and asked to figure out where and how pot 
should be sold.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom