'It's their craft product, they just love making it,' says Vancouver pot dealer about illegal producers

Vancouver marijuana dealer describes those who grow, sell pot illegally are more like artisans than kingpins

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – One of Vancouver’s many marijuana dealers is scoffing at the suggestion that the impending legalization of pot will eliminate illegal sales of the drug.

As part of the sales pitch for bringing in a legal pot regime, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated “we need to make sure we’re keeping our kids safe and keeping our communities safe by removing the black market and the criminal gangs and the street organizations from it.”

Jackson, who has been hand-delivering pot in the Vancouver area on a full-time basis for about five years, describes those who grow and sell marijuana illegally more like artisans than kingpins.

“It’s their craft product, they just love making it,” he says. “Nobody that I’ve talked to in the black market who has been doing this for decades is feeling like their market share is going to disappear and they’re going to stop producing.”

Jackson says he’s not personally concerned about government competition putting him out of work.

He draws comparisons to the current BC beer market, where smaller craft brewers are able to compete alongside large corporate producers despite their better prices and expansive distribution models.

“I don’t think there’s any end to the appetite for any consumable product; if it’s good, people will like it,” he adds.

As for the end consumer, Jackson says he’s heard from many who are not about to abandon a service they know and trust just because the product is available legally elsewhere. He also has doubts that the government can compete with black market prices once taxes and overhead costs are factored in.

“I also see a huge difference between casual consumers that want to spend $10 or $20 at a time, those folks are well-served to go to a shop, versus large consumers that want to spend $100 or $200 at a time.”

These opinions are reflected to some degree by the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, a Vancouver-based think tank, which says displacing Canada’s well-entrenched black market won’t be easy.