Politics and policy are much more complicated things than they appear to many people. Change is possible, but effective change can only come if we see the world as it is, not as some people imagine it might be.
There are not enough legal cannabis stores to meet
demand. The gap in price between legal
and illegal cannabis is growing. The
supply of legal cannabis is spotty and there are still complaints about the
quality of what stores have on their shelves. By contrast, the illicit market
is apparently thriving.
The reason that the policy failed is that it was
driven by established bureaucratic interests from law enforcement and health
and addictions who opposed legalization in the first place. That led to a policy that placed the maximum
emphasis on restriction and limitation of access.
What most governments in Canada ignored is the highly
developed, private sector alternative that had been delivering cannabis to
retail customers across the country for decades. The industry survived despite the most severe
restrictions that Canadian law could impose.
It *was* illegal to possess cannabis, after all, under any circumstances,
for most of the last 60 years or more.
Governments just don’t do “business” very well. They aren’t organized for it and – what’s
more important – the people inside the organizations don’t think about problems
the same way people in business do. In
fact, they don’t think about most things the way people outside government
do.
