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.
However, there is another threat and perhaps it is captured in the above point with respect to those who out of self-interest are threatening facets of the legal cannabis industry in Canada. The past advocates who through their own decisions cannot participate in the legal industry are the obvious ones and should be assigned their relevance accordingly. But let’s zero in on one powerful and influential group in particular and that is the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying of Canada list includes the CMA (Click Here). For those not familiar with this Office:
The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying was established in July 2008 under the Lobbying Act (the Act) to support the Commissioner of Lobbying. The Commissioner is an independent Agent of Parliament, appointed by both houses of Parliament for a term of seven years. The purpose of the Act is to ensure transparency and accountability in the lobbying of public office holders in order to increase the public's confidence in the integrity of government decision-making.
By definition, according to dictionary.com a lobbyist is “a person who takes part in an organized attempt to influence legislators” According to the aforementioned Lobbying Act in Canada, “Lobbying is communicating, with public office holders, for payment with regard to: the making, developing or amending of federal legislative proposals, bills or resolutions, regulations, policies or programs”.
This is important because we are seeing a rise in cannabis industry groups claiming to not be lobbyists yet claim to work with governments to, for example, create standards. In theory so long as no one belonging to such groups is benefitting in any way that may be seen as “payment” perhaps they narrowly escape the technical definition. The most influential industry group, Cannabis Canada, for example was specifically identified as a lobbying group in this May 2018 Global News report (Click Here) and can be found on the registered list of lobbyists.
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