as I was surprised to see an individual working the phones and emails to be scheduled for as many interviews and panels as possible. In time the person “launched” being able to list all of the media shows and panels that this person was on. Clever yes but not very sincere and perhaps analogous to a kickstarter campaign. There is something genuine about growing a business rather relying on trickery, slight of hand, and stunts to bypass that pure process. This person and others like this person know full well that 99.5% of the industry does not know their origin story. That is in contrast to our team that have been here right with you since day one helping you identify and navigate around the smoke and mirrors that at times appear to have plagued this industry. Your simple question to ask yourself when reading information is: Self-Interest over Service OR Service over Self-Interest?
Do not get me wrong, those that put self-interest over service may reward their followers too but that is collateral or ancillary. I have yet to come across any non-Canadian covering the Canadian industry that I would unequivocally state I felt was in this for service over self-interest. There are not many Canadians I have come across either. But that is fine, if one is seeking a livelihood solely from this industry then one can appreciate why they choose self-interest over service. The importance is that you think about this when using them for your information that in turn influences your investment choices. I can however state that I truly believe that our entire CannaInvestor Magazine Canadian core contributing content team is the very definition of service over self-interest. Remember, keep it simple – service over self-interest. Questrade has commercialized this basic premise with years of commercials with respect to the high fees charged by others because of self-interest over service and the commercials attempt to demonstrate how such an approach has collectively cost clients a king’s ransom in high fees.
But what about the list of threats we started with?
To show how complicated some of those threats are let’s look at enforcement. To achieve a level of cost recovery for the initial and ongoing enforcement of the law, higher taxes were said to be needed. Higher taxes raise the price to the consumer and that means that the legal industry has added costs compared to the Black Market. However, when caught, the Black Market is not only in violation of The Cannabis Act and other legislation but also of the Excise Tax Act, Income Tax Act, HST, etc plus any provincial/territorial and municipal violations. It is indeed a bit of chicken and the egg as the approach taken encourages and facilitates, or at least prolongs, the Black Market and is relying not only on enforcement but also on the courts to uphold the enforcement.
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