Pubdate: Fri, 21 Oct 2016
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2016 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Series: O Cannabis: Part Six of Six
Series: http://news.nationalpost.com/features/o-cannabis
Author: Brian Hutchinson
Page: A2

BLACK MARKET TO GREY

The illicit pot market is no longer dominated by street gangs, outlaw 
motorcycle clubs and organized crime

Meet the boss of Canada's illegal marijuana trade, Don Briere. To
police and the criminal courts, he is already a familiar face, a
maverick dealer and convicted grower who has served multiple prison
sentences for refusing to obey this country's longstanding prohibition
on pot.

Briere has fought the law and lost, most of the time. And yet, even at
an age when most Canadians are entering retirement, this 65-year-old
British Columbian is more involved in the underground cannabis
business than ever.

His Weeds Glass and Gifts sells a vast array of cannabis products from
glass display cases: marijuana, potent concentrates, baked goods, even
drinks. What started as a single dispensary in Vancouver three years
ago has grown into a national franchise, with 23 stores in B.C.,
Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec. Briere owns six stores outright, and is
an equal, jointventure partner in the others.

His chain's annual sales have reached $20 million, says Briere, adding
that more Weeds outlets are the way.

Authorities have slowed him, but it seems they can't stop him. Police
raided seven of his Toronto dispensaries in May; three were back in
operation by midsummer. A Weeds store in Quebec City was raided
recently, but Briere vows sales will resume.

In Vancouver, police don't bother trying to shut down his stores. They
say their priorities no longer include enforcement of existing
marijuana laws.

The landscape has dramatically changed since Briere got into the game
decades ago.

In an effort to reduce and cap the number of cannabis dispensaries in
Vancouver - they numbered more than 100 last year - the city
introduced unique bylaws that required shops to apply for business
licences. If they were denied, they would have to close.

That was how the system was meant to work.

None of Briere's Vancouver stores passed muster with the city; none
received the required permits. They have remained open, racking up
thousands of dollars in municipal fines, which Briere refuses to pay.

He is not waiting for the federal government to introduce legislation
that will legalize and regulate the sale of recreational marijuana to
adults in Canada, either. Briere doubts the new rules - expected to
come into force in the next year or two - will make room for his stores.

He has, after all, a number of criminal convictions related to the
cultivation and sale of marijuana in B.C., going back to 2001. He was
also convicted for possession of a prohibited firearm. While on parole
in 2004, he was arrested for running an illegal cannabis shop in
Vancouver, and sent back to prison.

Briere says he will keep selling marijuana, his way.

He has already scored some minor victories, including a B.C. Supreme
Court decision in August that has allowed him to continue operating -
temporarily, at least - an illegal dispensary in Abbotsford, about an
hour's drive east of Vancouver.

Briere represents the type of person who has taken over the sale of
underground weed in Canada. The illicit pot market is no longer
dominated by street gangs, outlaw motorcycle clubs and organized crime.

Small- and larger-scale cultivation have increased, streetfront
dispensaries are becoming commonplace, law enforcement has relaxed,
and marijuana prices are lower than ever. All of these factors have
pushed organized crime to the fringes. The black market has turned
grey.

According to several sources, even the regulated medical marijuana
market in Canada has been compromised.

Under existing federal law, Canadians authorized by their health care
practitioner to use cannabis for medical purposes have several legal
product sources: They may grow their own marijuana, designate someone
to produce it for them, or purchase it from a largescale producer
under license by the federal government.

BEN NELMS / POSTMEDIA

Hundreds of "designated persons" and 34 corporatestyle, licensed
producers in Canada grow marijuana in indoor facilities and
greenhouses across the country. They are not authorized to provide
marijuana to anyone except individuals holding federal permits.

But Briere says all of the marijuana he buys wholesale - some $10
million this year - and sells through his stores comes from designated
producers and "more than one" licensed producer.

"Some of the licensed producers are losing money," he says. "They have
a surplus of product. What are they supposed to do, let it rot?"

Meanwhile, a Colorado executive involved in that state's legal
recreational marijuanatrade says Canadian licensed producers have told
him 80 per cent of their cannabis products "are going to the
dispensaries."

Such claims are impossible to verify - no licensed producer will ever
admit to illegally supplying dispensary owners such as Briere.

In answer to questions posed by Postmedia, Health Canada - the
government department that handles medical marijuana licensing - says
any producers found to be diverting marijuana to the illicit market
will have their licence revoked and the owner and employees turned
over to law enforcement to deal with.

But authorities have previously acknowledged Canada's medical
marijuana rules were being exploited.

In 2010, the RCMP found 40 marijuana production licence holders were
illegally selling their product. And a 2012 RCMP intelligence report
noted that "gaining access to or control of a medical marijuana grow
operation is highly desirable for criminal networks due to the array
of opportunities it would present for the illicit production and
diversion of highgrade medical marijuana."

Even so, Health Canada says it "has no information" to suggest
licensed producers and individual licence holders are supplying
illegal dispensaries.

Whatever the case, the Trudeau government insists making marijuana
legal and available to Canadian adults will do more than any other
measure to cut big-time criminals out of the trade.

A government discussion paper prepared this year for the federally
appointed Task Force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation says,
"the illegal trade of marijuana reaps an estimated $7 billion in
income annually for organized crime. ... In 2015, the Criminal
Intelligence Service Canada reported 657 organized crime groups
operating in Canada, of which over half are known or suspected to be
involved in the illicit marijuana market."

But in an August submission to the same task force - headed by former
federal justice minister Anne McLellan, it will recommend how the
government should proceed with legalization - three Vancouver-area
drug policy experts warned that organized crime's involvement is overstated.

"Evidence suggests a very low level of involvement of organized crime
in the cannabis industry in Canada," the trio writes. "The majority of
those in the industry tend to be non-violent and have minimal
involvement with other criminal activities."

In its own task force submission, a group of small producers called
the Craft Cannabis Association of B.C. wrote that, "craft producers
and retailers wish to be part of the legal industry. ... We do not
want the federal government to exclude them based on the unfounded
notion that these people are members of 'organized crime'. "

Whomever the federal government allows into the recreational
marketplace - large corporate players, smaller mom-and-pop operators,
or both - regulations and efforts to inoculate the industry from
criminal elements are necessary.

The danger is rules meant to block bad guys could reach too far,
producing unintended consequences.

Legal recreational marijuana was introduced to Colorado in 2014. While
most industry participants say the state's regulatory environment has
allowed them to succeed, some arcane requirements and potential
changes tilt the playing field.

"Legalization was sold to voters as something to be regulated, like
alcohol," says Tim Cullen, CEO and coowner of the Colorado Harvest
Company, which produces, processes and sells recreational pot. "But
the rules aren't the same. They aren't even close. We have residency
rules, purchase limits, and advertising, packaging and labelling
restrictions that the alcohol industry doesn't have."

There is a proposal before voters to limit the potency of all
marijuana sold in Colorado. Forcing licensed marijuana producers to
cut the strength of their product is "a ridiculous idea," Cullen says,
"because it would benefit black market producers. They are already our
strongest competition. Right now, we beat them with the quality and
selection we offer in our stores."

The biggest difference between black market weed and legal marijuana
has less to do with quality and variety and more to do with price. The
government-regulated market is taxed; the black market is not.

When legal recreational marijuana was made available to adults in
Washington State two years ago, the state imposed three levels of
taxation: Licensed producers, processors and retailers were all forced
to pay a 25-per-cent excise tax on marijuana products. These duties
were passed along to the customer, and the average price for a gram of
dried marijuana sold in regulated shops was US$30, about four times
the street price.

Hardly surprisingly, consumers avoided the legal market in droves,
says Rick Garza, director of the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis
Board, the public body that enforces local pot laws. The state
responded a year later, overhauling its tax regime so that a single,
37-percent excise tax would be applied to marijuana products at the
point of sale.

As a result, the average price for a gram of marijuana sold through
legal channels in Washington State is now about US$9.

After a slow start and a glut in supply the first year, total sales of
marijuana under the regulated system reached the US$1-billion mark in
June this year.

"That's double what we expected," says Garza.

Meanwhile, the state has collected more than US$270 million in
marijuana excise taxes since legalization.

Washingtonians may love their legal pot, but the local black market
hasn't died. Garza estimates it represents about 28 per cent of the
market. That should not come as a surprise, he says. Some buyers live
in areas of the state where legal pot is not close at hand, due to
county-wide bans. Some prefer to deal directly with underground
growers and dealers.

"It's like booze after Prohibition," he says. Some people continued to
buy liquor from bootleggers. But with time, the black market shrank to
insignificance.

The same may happen with marijuana. A lot depends on the rules
governments impose on the legal market, and on the levels of taxation
they apply.

Garza has received visits from a number of Canadian lawmakers and law
enforcement officials, looking to learn from the Washington State
experience. His advice? "Start conservatively." Create limits, but
don't burden a nascent legal marijuana industry with more rules and
restrictions than are necessary to protect children, and society at
large. Don't over-tax the system, or the whole exercise may fail. And
don't expect to eliminate the black market overnight.

On that point, at least, Don Briere can agree. Canada's king of retail
pot stores is speaking to investors and scouting potential sites for
low-cost, outdoor grow-operations and greenhouses.

"We're looking at going into production ourselves," says Briere.
"We're not going anywhere."

Newshawk: Herb Couch Pubdate: 21 Oct 2016 Source: National Post (Canada) 
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Feedback: 
http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU Address: 300 - 1450 Don Mills Road, 
Don Mills, Ontario M3B 3R5 Fax: (416) 442-2209 Copyright: 2016 Canwest 
Publishing Inc. Webpage: 
http://news.nationalpost.com/features/o-cannabis-black-market-to-grey 
Author: Reid Southwick Page: A3

SAFETY VS. PRIVACY

The advent of recreational marijuana presents a quagmire of
contradictions for employers to navigate.

An Alberta man raising a young family smokes pot every chance he gets
after working hours are over, but he knows he could lose his job, and
maybe damage his career, over his habit.

The sole income earner for his wife and two children, aged three and
four, he's a little worried he might get caught, given that he often
faces drug tests before joining new work sites, which can happen
several times a month.

The crane operator, who mainly works in oilfields, has beat the system
so far by getting a good sense of how long he'll remain at a given
site before he has to move on and take another test. When he suspects
his job site is changing, he stays off the dope.

"I feel that it's not my company's business what I do in my own time,"
said the worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Like many other Canadian workers, he could be denied access to job
sites and potentially fired for testing positive for marijuana, even
though the urine screen can't confirm whether he was high on the job.
It only indicates use in the past month or so. Still, the man's union
would be obligated to inform future employers for some time that he
failed the test, "which can affect your entire career."

"If marijuana were to be legalized, and nothing changes in regards to
how they test and why they test, people could be fired left and right
for nothing," he said.

Workplaces like his where safety - and sobriety - are critical have
largely been the exception to the rule in Canada that on-the-job drug
testing is considered an invasion of privacy and potentially
discriminatory.

Those who work in safety-sensitive positions, such as heavy equipment
operators, miners and truck drivers, have often been subjected to
varying degrees of drug and alcohol testing, from pre-hiring screens
to controversial random tests. Even these have been the targets of
legal challenges, with some success.

Still, workers in these industries may not see any easing in
drug-testing requirements should Ottawa legalize recreational pot,
according to employment lawyers and drug testing officials.

"There are safety implications associated with alcohol and drug use
and abuse in the workplace," said Barbara Johnston, a Calgary
employment lawyer who has represented companies in drugand
alcohol-testing court challenges. "That has to be appropriately
managed and mitigated by employers, and that is not going to change in
the future."

Under a regime of legalized pot, employers not involved in hazardous
job sites will likely treat marijuana the same way they treat alcohol,
said Tom Duke, a lawyer in Miller Thomas's Edmonton office.

"If I have a beer on a Friday night, I'm fit for work Monday morning;
it's not an issue," Duke said. "That's the analogy that you're likely
going to see, if and when marijuana does get legalized."

A critical concern in many arbitration hearings and court cases
challenging drug tests is the failure of screening technology to
measure intoxication.

THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is fat-soluble, which means
it stays in the system longer than alcohol, heroin, cocaine and other
water-soluble substances. Urine tests can detect traces of pot in the
body for up to 30 days, but the screens measure inactive metabolites,
not active substances, according to scientists.

Cannabix Technologies, a Vancouver company, is working with Florida
chemists in an attempt to develop a breathalyzer test for THC, a
technology many players hope will one day replace the status quo.

"The urine tests can't identify people who are impaired," said Scott
Macdonald, assistant director at the Centre for Addictions Research of
BC.

"The tests are just picking up users, not those that are a safety
risk," he said. "If the test for alcohol could only tell if you've had
a drink in the last two or three days, would that be justified? Most
people would laugh at that because drinking is so commonplace. But
that is basically what is being done with drug testing."

John Chiasson, a recreational pot smoker, had been hired as a
receiving inspector at an Alberta oilsands operation in 2002. He was
fired more than a week later when his employer received the results of
his pre-employment drug test, which found marijuana in his system.

Chiasson, who had been hired in a safety-sensitive position, told his
superiors at Kellogg Brown & Root Co. that he had smoked pot five days
before his test. After he was fired, he filed a human rights complaint
alleging discrimination on the grounds of a disability.

This type of complaint is traditionally made by workers who believe
they were wrongly fired for their addictions, which can be considered
disabilities. Chiasson didn't claim he was addicted, insisting he
toked on his own time and never at work.

The case rose all the way up to the Alberta Court of Appeal, which
found the company policy appropriately considers any drug user "a
safety risk in an already dangerous workplace."

The panel declined to follow a decision by the Ontario Court of
Appeal, which considered random drug testing at Imperial Oil's Sarnia
refinery. In its 2000 decision, the court found drugtesting technology
fails to measure an employee's relative intoxication and that random
tests could not be justified to achieve the "legitimate goal of a safe
workplace free of impairment."

The Chiasson case underlines a challenge for employers attempting to
ensure their dangerous workplaces are safe while avoiding allegations
they are unfair or discriminatory, said Monette Maillet, senior
general counsel at the Canadian Human Rights Commission's protection
branch.

"If somebody has an addiction, it's a bit clearer that the employer
has a duty to accommodate the addiction," Maillet said. "Where it can
get tricky is if somebody is a recreational user; they don't have an
addiction."

Oilsands giant Suncor Energy has been fighting a lengthy court battle
to introduce random drug and alcohol testing at its operations in Fort
McMurray. The union argues random tests violate privacy rights while
failing to increase safety because they don't measure impairment, only
"off-duty conduct."

Unifor lawyer Niki Lundquist said Suncor already tests workers before
hiring them or allowing them onto its sites, and can order screens
when officials have reasonable cause to be suspicious or believe
impairment played a role in workplace incidents.

The company argues these measures have failed to stop safety concerns
at its job sites, given claims it is dealing with an "out of control"
drug culture. In court, the firm presented evidence of nearly 2,300
security incidents related to drugs and alcohol over nine years. Three
of seven workers who died on the job at Suncor from 2000 to 2012 were
under the influence of drugs or alcohol, according to the company.

"We wouldn't be pursuing this if we didn't feel it was absolutely
necessary," said Suncor spokeswoman Sneh Seetal.

The Alberta crane operator with two young children at home suspects
there may be more court battles ahead as recreational pot smokers like
him argue their employers cannot dictate what they do on their own
time.

For now, the 27-year-old father does his best to avoid
suspicion.

"I feel generally the risk is pretty low for me, because I know what
I'm doing," he said. "The only time I really do it is when I know for
sure that I'm not going to have to go for a pre-employment test.

"Say I just took one now; I would probably go home and smoke a joint."
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