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On a grey Friday morning early last month, the Mayor of Niagara Falls, Ontario, took the stage to deliver the welcoming address at the Grow Up Cannabis Conference and Expo, one of the bigger industry events that have sprung up around Canada’s burgeoning marijuana sector.

Sporting a tie with what he described as “green flowers,” Jim Diodati warmed up the audience with an anecdote about how as a politician he had braced for the “moment of truth,” when he would be asked by the press if he had ever smoked marijuana (he had experimented once upon a time, he told a reporter, but was no longer a user).

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The mayor also made an observation about the crowd that had gathered in his city to network and learn more about the business of cannabis.

“I thought I was going to see a little more grunge today,” Diodati said. “And I can’t get over the suits I’ve seen.”

It’s a feeling that many in the potentially lucrative and soon-to-be legalized world of recreational cannabis might echo.