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Designed to push out the illicit drug trade, Canada’s recent decision to legalize marijuana has instead been a major boon to the black market, including in Windsor.

Despite city council’s recent “opt in” vote to permit bricks-and-mortar retail pot operations, it’s unlikely Windsor will see any such business established before 2020 at the earliest.

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Meanwhile, a local black market entrepreneurial surge is underway within the municipality.

A rapidly growing number of online retail operations focused on the Windsor market have been sprouting up since the beginning of the year. These websites and apps offer strains of pot that are much cheaper than what the province’s own online store is selling. And all of them promise much quicker delivery, usually in under two hours.

But they’re unlicensed and illegal.

A large collection of these new pot-peddling businesses can be found on Weedmaps.com. With just a couple of keyboard clicks, past a screen asking whether the user is 19 or older and to inform the visitor that “weed is legal” in so-called High Canada, a local smorgasbord of retail pot products awaits.