Indigenous-Owned Cannabis Dispensaries Operate in 'Red Market'

Robert Stevenson is Anishinaabe of the Bear Clan and owner of Medicine Wheel, a cannabis dispensary operating under the 'red market' on Alderville First Nation. On Alderville First Nation - a reserve south of Roseneath, Ont. - a dozen cannabis stores make up a short stretch of Highway 45, in what's been dubbed 'The Green Mile'. Since Canada legalized cannabis in 2018, the sector's annual GDP sits at about $10.8-billion, sustaining tens of thousands of jobs across the country.

While cannabis is federally regulated, the oversight of wholesale distribution and retail is in the hands of provinces and territories. The dispensaries on The Green Mile mostly fall outside that sector. They're part of a different market - one that is, surprisingly, not operating under provincial dispensary laws. It's what Indigenous industry experts call 'the red market'. 'We're not legal to the Canadian government, and we're not licensed through the province,' says Robert Stevenson, an Anishinaabe man of the Bear Clan and owner of Medicine Wheel, the first dispensary opened on The Green Mile

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