|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Legalization has empowered authorities across the country to shutter all but several dozen of the illegal cannabis storefronts that once numbered in the hundreds in the months preceding Canada’s historic end to prohibition last fall.
And yet, despite more than 200 illicit shops in Toronto and Vancouver either closing over the past year or transitioning to pursue licences from the provinces, online sales from illegal cannabis retailers are proving much more difficult to stamp out.
Abbotsford police Chief Mike Serr, a former Vancouver gang officer who chairs the drug advisory committee of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, said municipalities and police agencies have been successful working together to shut down unlicensed marijuana shops since the drug was legalized Oct. 17, but there has been “a real boom” in the number of online portals delivering illegal cannabis right to people’s doorsteps.
“Unfortunately it’s been described as a whack-a-mole: We take down one site and two more open up,” Chief Serr said.
“If you were to do a simple Google search, you would see numerous sites coming up and one of the issues for consumers is it’s really difficult to tell online who is a legal seller and who is an illegal seller.”
[…]
See Also:
(1) 40% of Canadian marijuana users bought it illegally even after legalization: StatCan
(2) Canadian cannabis investors still waiting for a breakout company to emerge
(3) Cannabis Canada Daily: Sundial’s pot reportedly returned after mould, rubber found
(4) Canadians continue to buy cannabis illegally
(5) Cannabis zero-tolerance common in Canadian workplaces: study
