The Canadian cannabis industry has recently been quite busy with several business conferences. But one thing has noticeably changed from event offerings last year: the term “black market” is getting the none-too-subtle heave-ho.
getting rid of the negative connotations“ı don’t like the term black market’ simply because ı’m tired of ‘black’ being associated with everything negative,” jackson wrote in a reply. “ıt may be difficult to understand if you have not experienced this stigma personally. ı prefer ‘legacy’ or ‘self-regulated’ as this is where ı come from.
“this caused a big uproar,” she says, but “the allard v. canada case resulted in an injunction that allowed mmar licence-holders to maintain their licence to produce and possess for their own personal medical needs. mmar licences continue to stay as the allard injunction is still in place, and there are still those growing under the mmar.”
unity marguerite offered several suggestions on twitter, including “informal,” “pre-regulated” and “silver market” because she, too, is trying eliminate “black market” from her vocabulary for its racial implications. going forward, the “black market” label could possibly be detrimental for those who identify as such. health canada seems to have been granting licences more freely to those who stayed out of cannabis during prohibition, and fewer to those who operated illegally.want to keep up to date on what’s happening in the world of cannabis? subscribe to the cannabis post newsletter for weekly insights into the industry, what insiders will be talking about and content from across the postmedia network.
— alana armstrong may 2, 2019jennifer caldwell, partner and technical lead at cannabis license experts, has been actively involved in the cannabis sector since 2013, working on over 60 licensed producer applications, including that of the very first new acmpr licensee, peace naturals. at the ucann2019 conference, held earlier this month in downtown toronto, caldwell framed the term “legacy market” while a part of the licensing panel discussion.
when the acmpr replaced the mmpr in august 2016, personal production licences were issued to patients under that framework as well. “so, there are individuals growing under many of the ‘legacy’ regulations who are not in violation of the law,” says caldwell, “unless, of course, they are selling the product which is illegal.”