Legacy to Legal
Canada’s Billion Dollar Cannabis Strategy
- Julia Chantrey/L2L
Jump to a section:
1. The Strategy | 2. The Players | 3. The Flower Trail | 4. Intention / Obstacle | 5. Top 3 at 420
Legal cannabis in Canada is nearing its 10-year mark.
It’s an exciting time.
Global brands are in development.
What happens now is going to determine the landscape of Canada’s cannabis industry.
So let’s start with:
How the heck did this happen?
In 2018, Canada launched a bold initiative.
Just like during Prohibition, we could see that there was a lot of money on the black market and we wanted this revenue.
Our obstacle: this would require us to rescue cannabis and give it a major status boost. The solution?
Canada’s Billion Dollar Cannabis Strategy
Legacy Veterans Collaborate within Legal Framework
The plan was this:
1) Leverage the top legacy growers working in the black market.
2) Extend an invitation to audition to compete on Canada’s legal landscape.
3) Use this Canadian collaboration to create our Legal Cannabis Ecosystem.
So, let’s look at how this happened.
Casting Legal Cannabis
Canada Establishes Legal Landscape
We start at the federal level.
Key player is Health Canada.
Each province has a provincial wholesaler.
This is the same with alcohol.
In Ontario, our provincial wholesaler for alcohol is the LCBO.
For Cannabis, we have the Ontario Cannabis Store.
On a city level, we have Retailers.
Just like bars and coffee shops, this is where consumers purchase cannabis.
Inside retail stores, the cannabis is sold by Budtenders.
These are similar to a bartender or a coffee barista.
Breaking Good
Black Market (Cannabis Professionals) Get Opportunity to “Go Legal”
Okay.
The legal landscape is set.
Now we need the cannabis.
This leads to the audition.
Our intention:
We want the best of both worlds.
Growers on the Black Market have a veteran skill set.
We can save decades of trial and error and jumpstart the Canadian economy.
Obstacle:
We want professionals, not criminals.
Our solution:
Health Canada imposes rigorous screening guidelines.
We target professionals with a veteran skill set in cannabis, no serious charges (guns/drugs.)
This leads to our Licensed Producers.
“LPs” hold an official licence to produce legal Cannabis in Canada.
This is similar to a driver’s licence and applies to each province.
Let’s follow our flower trail,
inside a successful Canadian brand.
Step 1: The LP Casts the Strain.
Our licensed producer works with the Director of Cannabis.
They decide which cannabis strains to develop for the year.
The LP hires the Micro Grower to produce the grow.
This is a small-batch cannabis producer.
Micros can work independently or in partnership with an LP.
Step 2: The LP Delivers the Cannabis to Provincial Wholesaler.
This is the OCS in Ontario.
Once delivered, the Cannabis undergoes over 244 testing regulations.
Step 3: Provincial Wholesaler approves the product for the market.
All orders for Cannabis go through the provincial wholesaler.
Cannabis is delivered in a variety of product formats.
All cannabis is sold by cost per gram.
Step 4: Retailers Order Cannabis through Provincial Wholesaler.
All retailers order cannabis through the provincial wholesaler.
This is similar to alcohol.
In Ontario, our provincial wholesaler for alcohol is the LCBO.
For Cannabis, we have the Ontario Cannabis Store.
Step 5: Consumer Buys Cannabis from Retailer
On the city level, our Canadian consumer buys Cannabis from a Retailer.
Similar to bars and coffee shops, this is a retail store licensed to sell cannabis.
Working as a customer service professional within the retail store, The Budtender sells cannabis.
This is similar to a bartender or a coffee barista.
Canada’s Canna(bis) Collab(oration).
We should feel good about this.
Canada’s Billion Dollar Strategy
Canadian Jobs
Taxable Revenue
$8 Billion in Canada’s 2024 GDP
This is our “Bronfman” window.
The last time we invited a former black market veteran to work in a legalized market, Canada produced Seagram’s liquor mogul Samuel Bronfman.
This is the landscape for Canada to develop global cannabis brands.
Our $9B reason to solve this bottleneck
Cannabis has generated $9.104 Billion for Canada this year already.
We’re doing well.
But we could be doing even better.
Like any emerging industry, there are some growing pains we need to work out.
Our obstacle is lack of clarity.
We’re still fighting each other when we could be working together.
Let’s look at this bottleneck.
Intention:
LPs are Canadian small businesses paying Canadian employees.
Obstacle:
Some Canadian banks are still “freezing” merchant accounts.
Solution?
Cannabis is legal now. Tell everyone.
Intention:
Cannabis retailers are also Canadian small businesses.
They are required to order through the Provincial Wholesaler.
Obstacle:
The Provincial Wholesaler (OCS) is then setting up “pop-up” shops on city streets and competing against its own retailers.
Solution?
Let’s play fair.
There’s enough market space for everyone.
Intention:
With Cannabis new to consumers on the legal market, there is a big demand for product knowledge.
Obstacle:
Right now, the responsibility to educate consumers falls primarily on the Budtenders.
Solution?
A confused mind never buys.
Canada wants informed consumers on the market.
We need accessible educational material that does not promote consumption.
Provincial retailers are beginning to provide educational content online, like the OCS’ Cannabis Made Clear.
All of that to say, things are going great.
But if we’re achieving $9 Billion with these kinds of shenanigans, imagine what would be possible if we all got on the same page.
Let’s lean into our little Canadian collaboration and work together to:
- Clarify.
- Unify.
- Scale.
How do we achieve this?
We create a 420 Industry Check-In.
This is going to be our industry pulse-check.
A national cannabis conversation hub.
“It’s 420 in Canada- what the heck is goin’ on?”
What am I proposing?
We leverage a Canna Collab Case Study.
We choose a successful, IN-MARKET Canadian LP who is thriving within our Legacy-to-Legal infrastructure.
This is a Canadian Cannabis company who is successfully collaborating with all 420 Industry Players.
We use this company’s real-time experience to pull friction points from the ecosystem.
If this LP, despite thriving, is hitting obstacles, we know this is highlighting system-wide issues.
It’s a great way to pull “hot topics” that are impacting other Canadian Cannabis brands.
STEP 1
Use live, in-market reporting.
STEP 2
Extract discussion points from the Canna Collab Case Study.
STEP 3
420 Industry Professionals check-in daily and weigh in on this topics.
This discussion creates a shared language.
Our shared language unifies momentum.
And this momentum allows rapid scaling.
Stakes:
This is major opportunity for Canadians.
Dylan King represents what’s possible for the Canadian Cannabis professional.
This is talent formerly squandered on the black market.
Now he’s a proudly legal CEO, employing Canadians, generating taxable revenue for the economy.
This is the kind of CEO we want to scale.
This is a major opportunity for Cannabis.
This is no longer our back alley drug from the 90’s.
Cannabis has made a comeback.
Restorative.
Unitive.
Canada’s new domestic Superpower.
We’ve got the players.
We’ve got the momentum.
We just need to start talking to each other.
Let’s lean into our Canna Collaboration and
move the flower forward.
It’s 420.
Let’s stay connected.
Claim your seat in the Green Room.
