The new leader of the BC Liberals is very skeptical of the avenue set out for currently illegal marijuana dispensaries to become legitimate businesses.
Andrew Wilkinson says anyone who has run a business knows it takes more than three months to get all the licenses and permitting required.
Wilkinson says for “renegade” dispensary operations the process needs to be complicated and he is extremely doubtful it can happen between now and July 1st.
“The NDP have left it awfully late. Suddenly they are popping this out into the commercial framework and saying it is going to be alright in 90 days. I am very skeptical that they will have that up and running. What will happen quite obviously is they will say oh gee only the government stores are ready to go so I guess they are going to dominate the market place. If we have government stores with government employees the cost base is going to be so high that the black market is just going to continue to operate.”
He says prospective marijuana business owners will now have to scramble to be ready for legalization.