While many of the benefits and consequences of allowing the adult use of recreational cannabis across the country are still being worked out, in Westlock, it doesn’t seem a lot has changed in the last year, but it actually has.
Canada’s Cannabis Act came into effect Oct. 17, 2018, making it only the second country in the world to legalize the cultivation, possession, acquisition and consumption of cannabis and its byproducts for adults wishing to use the drug recreationally. Medical cannabis has been in use by doctor-approved patients since 2001.
The industry is heavily regulated, with Health Canada approving licensed producers to supply provincial entities like Alberta Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis with product which is then distributed to retail locations throughout the country that are approved by each province’s overseeing entity.
There are now 306 cannabis stores in Alberta and three of them call Westlock home and despite the bumpy rollout that saw all three businesses delay their public openings due to a shortage of product available from licensed producers around the country, all three seem to be thriving in the community that serves not only the 12,000-plus people that reside in the Town of Westlock and Westlock County, but also the town and county of Athabasca and town and county of Barrhead and everywhere in between.
The closest cannabis store outside of Westlock is in Whitecourt or St. Albert, while the closer you get to Edmonton the more frequent they become. To the north Slave Lake hosts three stores of its own, while Lac La Biche also has one retailer of its own.
Westlock has become the cannabis hub of the region as no other entrepreneurs have shown interest in surrounding communities, or at least have not been successful in licensing. Harvest Country Cannabis opened its doors July 15, followed later in August by Fire and Flower Cannabis and then earlier this month Choom Cannabis Company opened its retail location in Westlock as well.
On top of that, Healius Naturals, a cannabis cultivation company hopes to be licensed and growing its own specialty crop in the Westlock County Industrial Park as soon as it is approved by Health Canada and can begin construction of its new building.
A smaller cultivation company known as a micro-grower, Wildrose Bud Inc., which is literally akin to a micro-brewer of beer, is also in the planning stages for another site in Westlock County, according to publicly-available development documents on the county website.
Harvest Country Cannabis owner Joe Renaud is a proud independent store owner and was first on the Westlock cannabis scene, despite being delayed about eight months in opening his store, due to a shortage of product from licensed producers.
He said it’s hard to gauge whether legalization has been a success inn the last year, as the store has only been open for a few months, he has noticed customers from around the region coming into the store though.
“We’ve certainly been getting traffic from Barrhead and surprisingly we’ve got a lot of traffic from the north country even though Slave Lake has its own stores. It seems a lot of them are going to Edmonton anyway, so they stop in Westlock,” said Renaud. “We’re getting people from all over the place. It seems we’ve got some cannabis tourism happening.”
With three stores, the competition in Westlock is definitely palpable. While Renaud is an independent owner and operator of Harvest Country, Fire & Flower occupies the other side of the ownership spectrum.
The company is often asked why they chose smaller communities like Westlock to set up shop.
“At some point as we were assessing real estate opportunities, we had a good opportunity in Westlock and we didn’t necessarily know about the competition in Westlock at the time,” said Fire & Flower Cannabis VP of product development and retail experience. “We found a site that was relatively close to the junction of Highway 18 and Highway 44 ... For us it was a bit strategic in making sure that community was serviced and that people passing through were also surfaced.”
“The community feel in small towns is something that our company really thrives on, being able to make those community connections, building on those relationships and being the shop that everyone wants to go to,” said Watson. “For us, Westlock absolutely fit that criteria.”
Watson pointed out that a year-and-a-half ago, the company didn’t exist. Now Fire & Flower, an Alberta-based company with head offices in Edmonton, operates 21 stores in the province and several others in Saskatchewan, Ontario and Yukon.
“We still consider ourselves a start-up and we’re growing exceptionally quickly. There’s lots of new shops coming online, in the next three months we’ll be hiring upwards of 400 staff members, so we’re becoming one of the largest cannabis employers in the country. Is that corporate? Maybe, but I think when any organization grows, you try to hang on to those grassroots ways of thinking,”
The law
While many nay-sayers were steadfast in their opposition to the legalization of cannabis in the time leading up to Oct. 17, 2018, many of their predictions about rising crime rates, more dangerous streets and the time law enforcement will have to spend dealing with cannabis issues, local RCMP say, it hasn’t been that big of a problem, thought they are always on the lookout for inappropriate and illegal behavior of all varieties.
“It hasn’t caused us any major concerns, we always want to watch out for the youth though and the use of cannabis and driving,” said Westlock RCMP Staff Sgt. Al Baird. “I don’t think we’ve had anything that has arisen from that besides a few tickets that have been issued over the last year.”
“It hasn’t been overwhelming or anything, that’s for sure.”
Baird said that even though legalization is still in its early stages as detection methods are improving and more and more officers are trained at spotting the impairing effects of the drug on drivers.
Around the province, many police are reporting an increase in the amount of drivers impaired by cannabis, but they are also seeing increases in alcohol-related incidents as well as other heavy drug impairment like methamphetamine.
Legalization hasn’t really seemed to have an impact on the amount of black market cannabis being seized by officers as they go about their jobs.
“I think it’s going to take a while,” said Baird. “From what I hear, in some places it’s cheaper to get it on the black market than they can get it through the government. We’re still busting people with pot possession along with other drugs. Meth is obviously a much more potent drug than marijuana is, and it’s still quite prevalent in the community. We continue to see it and I don’t think that’s going to go away too easily.”
According to Statistics Canada, black market cannabis can sell for half as much of the legal variety found in stores, whose products can range up to $12 per gram or more.
Edibles coming soon
With the first anniversary of now passed, cannabis-infused edibles have also been legalized and may come in the form of anything from cookies, candies and cakes to beverages of all kinds and even topical lotions and balms are also expected to hit the legal market come December.
Oct. 17 was the date licensed producers of cannabis could begin the application process to begin manufacturing such products, which is expected to take up to 60 days or more.
“There’s a lot of people who are excited to try it and find out about what these products are,” said Watson, adding that many companies are working on developing cannabis infused beverages, which will be of the highest quality in the world because of Canada’s regulatory requirements.
“I think everyone is going to find them quite interesting. How much they sell and how popular they will be will be up to the customers to decide,” said Watson.
Renaud agrees, it will definitely be interesting, but doesn’t see it as much more than a flash in the pan.
“I think it will be interesting in the start because there’s a lot of people waiting to try this stuff, but we’ll see how it goes. It has certainly become a portion of the market in places like Colorado and California,” said Renaud, who said he predicts a temporary boost when edibles become available, but the novelty will wear off soon after.
“Most of the people that we see now are flower-buyers.”
