VANCOUVER—Advocates for B.C.’s small-scale “craft cannabis” industry are warning that grassroots growers may be an endangered species unless the government takes swift action.

Representatives of craft cannabis growers and retailers delivered an open letter to the Vancouver offices of federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and B.C. Attorney General David Eby Friday in the hopes of spurring government to make regulatory changes that would allow small cannabis-farmers some hope of participating in the legal market.

Roxanne Judson of the Ethical Cannabis Producers Alliance said while the craft cannabis industry sits waiting for the feds to open the application process for small-scale growers’ licenses, billion-dollar cannabis companies are snapping up contracts all around the country.

“By the time the rules are written to include people like us,” Judson said, “there’ll be little to no contracts left, effectively shutting us out.”

Ian Dawkins, president of the Cannabis Commerce Association of Canada, said market conditions have so far been entirely arranged to favour big business, from regulations governing advertising to the square footage and security required to obtain a license to grow.

“A small cannabis farmer can’t compete in this world,” Dawkins said. “And that’s a concern when there are tens of thousands of small cannabis farmers across this province.”

The number of employees working in B.C.’s illicit cannabis industry has been estimated at more than 13,000 individuals, according to a report from the Cannabis Growers of Canada, with wages for positions directly related to the industry totalling more than $600 million. The same report estimates those figures might be doubled when cannabis exports are brought into consideration.

Dawkins said he and his colleagues had been through several sit-down conversations with federal and provincial officials, and had pitched what they felt was a reasonable set of proposals to permit smaller-scale growers entry into the legal market.

These proposals included dovetailing cannabis advertising regulations with those that govern advertisement of alcohol, allowing facilities to both grow and sell cannabis on the same premises similar to small-scale brew pubs, and permitting grow-ups of up to 5,000 or 10,000 square feet to operate with a micro-growers’ license.

What they got back, Dawkins said, was “a turd.”

The maximum size for micro-growers’ operations is currently set at 2,000 square feet, Dawkins said, while the rest of their proposals had not been mentioned. Even worse, he said, the application process for micro-growers hasn’t even opened yet.

From his perspective, this lack of action is killing the craft cannabis industry.

“All of these people (will) become unemployed and frankly have no choice but to stop what they’re doing, or become black-market providers,” Dawkins said. “Which we don’t think anyone wants.”

Ehren Richardson, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries, agreed that leaving small growers out of the picture would likely have unintended consequences.

“These people aren’t going anywhere,” Richardson said. “They’ve been doing this their whole lives. It’s not like because of legalization they’re going to stop growing.”

The cannabis economy, he said, was at the heart of many rural B.C. economies — especially those hamstrung by disappearing job opportunities in lumber and fishing. If government refuses to take action to remove barriers preventing those growers and producers from going fully legal, Richardson said, it could have the opposite effect to what legalization is supposed to achieve.

“You’re going to see a lot of social problems, and you’re going to see a lot of upset people, and you’re going to see a black market that continues to thrive,” he warned.

Read more:

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Majority of Canadian pot users get it from illicit sources, report says.

Opinion | Cannabis debate: Not enough is being planned to protect youth from effects of marijuana

CBD is cannabis that won’t get you high. So why are so many people using it?

Dana Larsen, director of Overgrow Canada and co-organizer of the 4/20 annual pot festival in Vancouver, said in jeopardizing small growers, the current regulatory framework jeopardizes the quality of cannabis.

Smaller-scale growers would currently only be permitted to sell to larger, licensed producers, who would then send it though several more storage and transportation steps before it finally reached the consumer.

And for heavy cannabis consumers — the ones Larsen believes will truly be driving the industry — pot that’s been sent around the country before it makes its way back to B.C. will be a resounding commercial failure.

Only by offering fresh product with a transparent taxonomy will the government be able to attract discerning smokers.

“And they won’t be able to do that unless they start offering up some small-scale licenses.”

But for Richardson, the regulatory decisions that have so far come down the pike seem to have overlooked the most critical consideration.

“We’re forgetting the most important people and that’s the medical patient,” Richardson said, adding the whole reason legalization was even possible was the years of risk and hard work medical growers, dispensaries and their patients had put in advocating for freedom to use a substance that worked for their ailments when nothing else would.

“They’re going to be forced to go source their product from the black market post-legalization,” he said. “And that to me is really the travesty in all of this.”

Read more about: