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It is language like this that sows distrust between regulators and the grey and black markets, showcasing — in the eyes of people like Larsen and James — the former camp’s failure to understand what the original movement to legalize cannabis was really about: ending the stigmatization of cannabis.

“People often ask me are you excited about legalization? And I say, well not really, because nothing that we campaigned to be legal will be legal, it’s mostly still illicit and there are more criminal penalties by many levels of government,” says Jodie Emery, co-founder and owner of Cannabis Culture, one of most prominent marijuana legalization activists in the country. In 2017, Jodie and her husband Marc Emery were arrested, charged and ultimately fined close to $200,000 for operating illegal dispensaries across Canada.

Photo by Tyler Anderson/National Post files

Emery admits that the last two years have been terrifying for her, as she’s watched herself being sidelined by massive licensed producers who have taken over the business of growing pot, with the “encouragement and support” of all levels of government. “I was in a very bad depression. The government, at every level, are saying to us, you’re going to be locked out of the legal system and your criminal record will ban you from getting in. Even though I don’t run any unlicensed dispensaries any longer,” she says.

Indeed, as the law presently stands, a criminal past that includes possessing or trafficking weed can disqualify an individual from being involved in the legal cannabis industry. It’s an irony that fuels the ire of cannabis activists like Emery. There has been some rhetoric by the Trudeau government on pardoning those charged or convicted for the possession of marijuana, but those discussions are still in their early stages, as the government presumably focuses on adjusting to the new reality of being just the second country in the world to legalize a drug for recreational use.