Canadian Growers Concerned About California Legalization Too!
From Vansterdam to San Diego, cashing in on the Left Coast’s biggest cash crop just got more interesting.
Fram Dinshaw
Posted: May 1st, 2010
British Columbia’s cannabis activists and law enforcement are bracing themselves for a political earthquake that’s set to hit California this fall when voters head to the polls to legalize marijuana. Vancouver-based activists fear B.C.‘s bud industry could be wiped out if California opens the door on pot decriminalization.
If the referendum passes next November, individual growers will be able to cultivate up to 25 square feet of marijuana while local governments would both regulate and tax the sale of cannabis.
“We’ve got to protect our pre-eminent position by legalizing now,” said Marc Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture and considered B.C.‘s so-called prince of pot.Speaking from his magazine office on Hastings Street, Emery said B.C.‘s marijuana industry could only compete with a possible pot haven in California if the province legalizes cannabis within the first two years of any such move south of the border
If California legalizes, the demands for B.C. marijuana at $2,400 a pound will greatly diminish, said Emery, who faces a five-year jail term in the U.S. for drug trafficking and distributing cannabis seeds over the Internet.
According to Emery, the homegrown market will evaporate if Canadian pot users flock to California for cheap, high-quality cannabis that could be available for a little as $10 per ounce, compared to the current rate of C$200 in Vancouver.Should B.C. also decriminalize pot, Emery said the provincial economy could benefit from industry innovation focused on developing high-quality cannabis strains.
The rest of the article is here:
May 1, 2010 at 1:08 pm
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