A former Kamloops MLA who is now in the legal cannabis industry says challenges lie ahead as legalization looms.
Terry Lake, the Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility with the Hydropothecary Corporation, says the Senate included a number of amendments in the legal marijuana bill.
“I suspect that they won’t accept them all. They will accept the technical ones. They may accept one of the major ones,which was around giving the provinces the right to say no to growing at home. But I don’t think they will accept many of the other amendments. Then it will have to go back to the Senate after the House of Commons for a quick vote. Then hopefully within a week or so this thing will be wrapped up and we can get to the next stage of legalization.”
Lake says he thinks both industry and government will be ready when the Trudeau government pulls the trigger on legalization.
That said Lake acknowledges there will bo some bumps in the road.
“The supply chain and making sure all those components are there. We have to line up of course with the regulations around packaging around labeling. Until all of those are finalized you kind of have some idea of what we are doing but we don’t have the final word on all these regulations. If things are different than industry is expecting at the end of the day then that will cause some problems in getting product ready.”
Lake says the other concern is if any tweaks to the bill change the landscape for the legal marijuana industry who will have to adjust on the fly.