Ontario will sell cannabis exclusively online via the government-owned Ontario Cannabis Store as of next month. Under a mishmash of old municipal rules, people running an illegal pot shop can be fined about $500 in Ontario. "It's open season on black-market dispensaries," says Jeffrey Lizotte, the CEO of Next Wave Brands and a lobbyist for the cannabis industry. Marijuana lobbyist Tyler James says it's in the government's best interest to give dispensaries a path to legitimacy once the drug becomes legal. (Shawn Benjamin/CBC)Lizotte thinks governments and cannabis dispensary owners want the same thing — a safe, regulated industry, out of the hands of criminals.

Source: CBC News September 21, 2018 08:00 UTC