Green Party Reveals Plan to Cut the Price of Weed and Kill Black Market

The legalization of marijuana in itself is good.

How it has been carried out? Not so much.

Nearly a year after Canada became only the second country in the world to legalize recreational cannabis use, many Canadians believe there are still significant improvements to be made.

For example, price. A survey in April revealed that the price of weed had increased around 17 per cent since legalization. One of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s aims with legalization was to curb the black market. That’s difficult to achieve when the legal goods cost a lot and are in short supply. Almost 40% of Canadians still buy cannabis illegally.

Unsurprisingly, Elizabeth May’s Green Party is making the matter an election issue.

“A year after the passage of the cannabis legislation, it’s clear that many of the government’s approaches are wrong,” said May in a press release. “Legalizing cannabis was long overdue but the subsequent rollout has failed.”

Her party proposes fixing the problem through a series of measures which include:

1. Lowering the federally set price for cannabis to make it competitive with illegal supplies

2. Eliminating requirements for excess plastic packaging on legal cannabis
3. Removing the sales tax on medicinal products
4. Allowing outdoor production and imposing organic production standards

“These changes aren’t difficult to implement but they will streamline cannabis production and make the final product cheaper and safer,” said May.

According to Statistics Canada, the price of legal cannabis was roughly $3 a gram more than illegal cannabis.