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HAMILTON, Ontario – The third floor of a commercial building located near the city is a vision of Canada's future.
At the sound of thrilling music, hundreds of people wander around marijuana-infused products on sale in a short-lived cannabis market. Cinnamon buns with marijuana. Cereal bars with marijuana and gluten-free cookies. Scrub for marijuana feet, bath bombs, chap. Marijuana has been blended with nuts, sour marijuana wrenches and cherry tarts.
In the middle of a smoke haze, from people taking cannabis strokes on "platforms" or high-tech bongs, is a Tim Hortons portable coffee shop, offering consumers a cannabis version of the classic Canadian drink – a double double or double cream and double sugar – infused with tetrahydrocannabinol, the chemical that causes a strong.
On Wednesday, after 95 years of prohibition, Canada will become the second country in the world to legalize cannabis after Uruguay – a country with less than one-tenth of its population.
"This is a day in Canada's history that we will remember and be proud of," said Hilary Black, one of Canada's leading cannabis activists, now working to advocate for patients' rights. and the education of Canopy Growth Corporation, the largest cannabis company in the world. "We are taking a strong leadership position on the world stage."
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As the legalization date approaches, the focus has been on logistics – putting in place laws allowing people to smoke and buy cannabis, determining how the police will control the driver behavior, write policies at the workplace and embark on an adventure. multi-billion dollar industry.
But the ephemeral cannabis market – where everything will remain illegal until next year, when the sale of edible products and cannabis-based products will become legal – raises broader questions about how cannabis can be used. will change the culture of Canada, a country known for multiculturalism, maple syrup, hockey, saying sorry and perhaps soon, its high quality bud. Will it turn the polite and slightly reserved Canadians into laid-back, summertime people?
Already, Canadians smoke a lot of marijuana.
Statistics collected by the National Census Bureau reveal that 42.5% of Canadians have tried marijuana and about 16% have used marijuana in the past three months. A 2013 Unicef report found that one-third of 15-to-24-year-olds had used cannabis in the previous three months, making Canada's youth the largest partner in the world.
Some people think that legalization will bring tremendous change, not only to Canada, but to the rest of the world.
"Prohibition is causing serious harm around the world," said marijuana activist Ms. Black.
In Canada, she said, those convicted of possession of cannabis have always been disproportionately indigenous and black. "This is a serious social justice issue that we are correcting in Canada and I pray that we can bring the world to our side."
Some countries might follow for economic reasons. Market analysts expect the sector to reach $ 5 billion (C $ 6.5 billion) by 2020, which will help reintroduce jobs in hollow manufacturing cities such as Smith Falls, Ontario. where is the seat of Canopy.
"Oct. 17 is the first day of our eternity," said the owner of the Kensington Hotbox Lounge in Toronto, dubbed Abi Roach for two decades, and in the past 18 years has sold marijuana smoking equipment and invites smokers to roll it, rent bangs and take shots on platforms aligned on his "dab bar".
"Now, our job is to reform the law so that cannabis is part of our daily lives, whether we choose to consume it or not," she continued, giving a turn in her patio that hummed with 20 people. smoke joints in the rain on a recent weekday.
Others are more skeptical.
"I do not think we're going to see a dramatic increase in cannabis use, perhaps at the beginning because of the novelty factor," said Geraint Osborne, a professor of sociology at the University of Alberta, who has been studying cannabis use for 13 years.
Andrew Hathaway, professor of sociology at the University of Guelph, who also studied the use of cannabis, wonders how corporatization and regulation will affect stereotypically peacenik, liberal and anti-establishment cannabis culture.
He pointed out that the new regulations of the government – which codify what a person can buy, carry and share (30 grams), as well as the place and the way in which it can be ingested (for the moment, a cannabis flower and a low power oil) – are intended to suppress the use of cannabis, not to encourage it.
"Some people talk about Prohibition 2.0," said Professor Hathaway. "The regulation has brought a heightened sense of scrutiny."
In the three years since the election of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with the mandate to legalize marijuana, the culture and cannabis industry have boldly emerged from the shadows in many parts of the country. .
Dispensaries selling various strains of marijuana and powerful extracts, called budder and shatter, have opened their doors in the main streets. Regular ephemeral markets like the one in Hamilton have come into existence, with sellers being able to get there five days a week in the Toronto area.
Cannabis shows have proliferated, offering not only a place to smoke and take tubs, but also courses on growing cannabis at home and making cannabis cream. Cannabis-infused caterers have become so commonplace that the National Association of Restaurant Companies, Restaurants Canada, organize a seminar on this subject. Cannabis tour companies have opened their doors, as well as "Bud-and-Breakfast" cannabis.
Universities and colleges across the country have run courses on trade, investment, retail and cannabis cultivation.
The newspapers, which have hired full-time cannabis reporters, have published articles on cannabis, filled with editorial announcements from government-licensed producers, who publish lines of beverages, coffee and toys at home. chew infused with cannabis for which these products are developed when they become legal.
A big question is what will happen to the huge illegal market, set at Can $ 5.3 billion by Statistics Canada. Since legalization will provide governments with a new stream of tax revenues, most people expect the police to crack down on shady areas.
But the terrain is changing as the provinces establish regulations for the new law.
In August, the newly elected Ontario government gave up its plan to sell cannabis in government stores, saying it would issue private licenses instead. In September, he expanded the rules on where people can consume, from private property to illegal smoking.
"We never imagined being able to smoke cannabis on the street," said Lisa Campbell, president of the Ontario Cannabis Consumer and Retail Alliance, who hired a lobbyist for $ 20,000 a month to persuading government officials to relax their plan.
Until recently, when she founded the cannabis subsidiary of her family's wine and spirits company, Ms. Campbell ran the Green Market, a pop-up edible cannabis market in Toronto. The market has organized about 30 events, she said – all illegal.
"We thought it was an unattainable dream that all these pop-ups we were doing get licenses and become legitimate," she said. "I think we made it so common, now Restaurants Canada is contacting us saying," We need your help. "
Lobbying will continue until what Ms. Campbell calls "advanced legalization" – a year from now, when the government plans to expand the scope of legal marijuana products in Canada to include products. edibles, extracts and creams.
Meanwhile, municipalities across the country are trying to determine whether to allow space for cannabis use, such as Ms. Roach's Hotbox Lounge.
She avoided being shut out by saying that she was removing users from city parks and providing them with a secure space to consume their own marijuana. In the end, his dream is to sell cannabis to his customers.
According to Roach, cannabis is becoming almost like corn in its derived form, inserted into ordinary Canadian consumer products. Although people eat a minimum amount of corn each day, she adds, "There is corn syrup in everything."
Reena Rampersad, who runs a cannabis catering business and organized the Hamilton Ephemeral Market, a city just an hour west of Toronto, also dreams of expanding. She looks forward to offering cannabis-infused coffee in her Caribbean restaurant soon.
"The trends are first in the gray market and then in the general market," she said. "It's just a matter of time."
With the attention and investment of the media, the stigma associated with cannabis use has already decreased. The stereotype of cannabis smokers in Canada has shifted from lazy and forgetful slackers to doctors, entrepreneurs and lawyers – many of whom have started a cannabis business.
One of those lawyers to Jack Lloyd. For years, he has published books on cannabis under many pseudonyms with Green Candy Press. "Now, I see that all these media companies have cannabis journalists and use their own names," he said.
"What a journey!"
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