Manitoba’s premier believes legal pot sellers will be forced to compete with gangs and lack a sufficient supply of the drug to do so.

Premier Brian Pallister he expects the “unrealistic” federal timeline that mandates pot sales be legalized by July 2018 will lead to direct competition between legal and illegal sellers. He plans to lobby fellow premiers at a first ministers meeting in Edmonton next week to join his call to delay that date.

“There’s no way that we’re going to supply the demand, except in part. So therefore, we’re moving into a situation where we’re going to compete gradually with gang distribution marijuana. Right there, we’re not in a position to take over the market with legal cannabis distribution systems because we don’t have enough production,” said Pallister.

“(It’s) pretty clearly understood we don’t have enough pot to sell but we’re supposed to be legalizing it in a year,” Pallister added.

Pallister said the imposed timeline to prepare for the change also puts road safety at risk.

“If we see any uptick in the numbers of ... users, that will potentially lead to more accidents, more deaths,” he said.

Pallister said he plans to reveal his strategy for Manitoba’s commercialization of pot in about two weeks but refused to specify his take on where the drug should be sold.

But the communications director for Canada’s health minister said legalized pot will have to compete with the black market before it reaches the ultimate goal of eliminating illegal sales.

“At some point we will need to compete,” said Yves Comeau. “The objective is eventually the black market of cannabis disappears.”

Comeau said Health Canada is now processing 428 applications for those who wish to become licensed marijuana producers and has streamlined the process to ensure regulated pot production can meet demand. He said a public education campaign will soon inform Canadians how much safer regulated pot is, in part because it wouldn’t be tainted with other drugs.

“Illegal producers will strain products that will eventually lead users to take stronger drugs ... Part of the quality supply is to ensure that that doesn’t happen,” said Comeau.

Pallister made his comments while sharing a list of priorities for the first ministers conference, which include boosting inter-provincial trade and securing more federal resources to address the asylum seekers entering Manitoba at unmarked crossings.

The province said those numbers have soared since 2015, when 220 individuals made that journey. That number jumped to 575 in 2016 and has already exceeded 750 this year. The leaves Manitoba on track to reach about 1,500 to 1,800 claims throughout 2017, an immigration spokesman confirmed.

jpursaga@postmedia.com

Twitter: @pursagawpgsun