5815 replies to this topic

[DustMagnet]

Leave it there more than a week and I am sure that they will get some free "art".

 

For sure, but I'm talking Art not "art" and certainly not dog pee tags.

[Victoria Watcher]

[Kapten Kapsell]

All Trees locations will close in two weeks: https://www.timescol...shop-1.23902361

[Hotel Mike]

Oh no! This whole rollout was handled so stupidly by the provincial government. You had a system of municipal regulations for weed shops...couldn't be too close to a school or liquor store etc. Many of the stores that got the city licences were well established, served their customers well, and were convenient. Legalization hits, go with the established stores and take your tax cut. But the NDP has badly fumbled this file. Where are the legal stores? People will be going back to 'their guy', to buy their weed. 

[Nparker]

 

Many of the illegal stores that got the city licences were well established, served their customers well, and were convenient...

There, fixed that for you.

[DustMagnet]

 

Many of the illegal stores that got the city licences were well established, served their customers well, and were convenient...

 

There, fixed that for you.

 

Yes, that totally improves the efficacy of the governmental roll-out.

 

 

Where are the legal stores? People will be going back to 'their illegal guy', to buy their illegal weed.

 

You forgot to fix those ones too.

 

Also you forgot to fix the actual distribution problem, but let's not talk about that. 

[Nparker]

The unlicensed pot shops might be operating fully within the law by now if they had not been operating illegally for so long. I have zero sympathy for them.

[spanky123]

The unlicensed pot shops might be operating fully within the law by now if they had not been operating illegally for so long. I have zero sympathy for them.

 

Heck with 6 shops over 4 years he probably pulled in $2M-$3M tax free. Not a bad take.

[Nparker]

Sometimes crime does pay.

[shoeflack]

Trees' downtown location on Yates was raided this morning. Guess the government didn't like Alex's assertion that he'd close down his shops in two weeks and wanted to do it today. Trees has now shut down all of its Victoria locations.

[DustMagnet]

The unlicensed pot shops might be operating fully within the law by now if they had not been operating illegally for so long. I have zero sympathy for them.

 

But do you have any sympathy for the consumer that is being ham-strung by the government mishandling of distribution?

 

I mean, you know what it's like to be, uh, mishandled by government: <cough> taxes <cough> plastic bags <cough>... Ugh, I don't even smoke the stuff and I'm hacking up a lung here.

[spanky123]

But do you have any sympathy for the consumer that is being ham-strung by the government mishandling of distribution?

 

I mean, you know what it's like to be, uh, mishandled by government: <cough> taxes <cough> plastic bags <cough>... Ugh, I don't even smoke the stuff and I'm hacking up a lung here.

 

From what I know, there has been no impact on the legal distribution of medical pot over the past year. Folks without a diagnosis or prescription continue to order from black market dealers (according to stats canada). A store may have made that more convenient but I doubt it is slowing anyone down.

[DustMagnet]

From what I know, there has been no impact on the legal distribution of medical pot over the past year. Folks without a diagnosis or prescription continue to order from black market dealers (according to stats canada). A store may have made that more convenient but I doubt it is slowing anyone down.

 

That's great for medical users.

 

Not sure how it relates to the botched recreational distribution model... 

[spanky123]

That's great for medical users.

 

Not sure how it relates to the botched recreational distribution model... 

 

I don't buy rec pot so I am only going by what my buddies tell me. From what I hear there is no problem at all getting pot and legalization has helped lower prices quite a bit.

[Mattjvd]

I have no sympathy when someone is knowingly breaking the law and has enforcement action taken against them.

[DustMagnet]

There is room in this thread to condemn both lawbreakers and government incompetence.

[Nparker]

I agree. The CoV was incredibly incompetent in allowing illegal pot shops to flourish.

[Mike K.]

It’s not necessarily incompetence, though.

Part of the licensing requirement is for all investors to open their books to the government. You could invest $20k to help open a $1 million dispensary but if you don’t open your books to the government to prove your money does not originate from crime you’ll hoop the whole licensing process.

It’s this sort of scenario that has no doubt posed serious challenges for dispensaries trying to obtain licensing.

[DustMagnet]

I agree. The CoV was incredibly incompetent in allowing illegal pot shops to flourish.

 

Among other things.  But back to the provincial government for a minute... (not that the CoV hasn't shown themselves to dabble in affairs beyond their reach of course.)

[Mike K.]

The CoV placed these businesses into a licensed environment that turned out to not only be irrelevant, but against the law. So all of the leases signed, stores opened and employees hired for City-sanctioned “licensed” pot shops put those businesses into committed scenarios from which they would essentially be setup for failure unless they had extremely deep pockets with clean funding sources.

Very, very few of these operators can afford to maintain a lease and a premises while not being able to sell anything. So we have the disaster that we now have.

The City took on something outside of its jurisdiction under the guise that it was forward thinking. But it turned into one of the largest economic missteps in the City’s history which saw many stores close and (now) government raids. This is a worst case scenario for investors who believed the City was within its authority to do what it did, who believed police turning a blind eye would actually work, and who believed federal sanctioning would just prop up what they had already started. Nope. All wrong.

The question now is, will there be lawsuits?