Together against Canada’s cannabis oligopoly

A public consultation on cannabis legalization is presently in progress, but the public remains unaware of its existence.

The "Cooperative Cann-Amis" is opposed to a formal approach ignored by the population. Indeed, the government omitted an essential aspect for a true consultation: make its existence known and conduct it before or after the summer vacations of july and august.

Actually, some actors are already interested in this maket, the medical marihuana producers. Only, 33 medical cannabis production permits have been legally granted. Except, this number is misleading because "Canopy Growth Corporation" owns 3 of those and accounts for one fourth of the Canadian production. Canopy is the new name of Tweed Marijuana witch was co-founded by M. Rifici at a time where he was partial to Justin Trudeau, a member of the LPC governing board and financial director of the Liberal Party of Canada (LPC).

Therefore we need your support to help the government make a choice for production and distribution that is fair, responsible on an economic and environmental level but also on the level of health and security. In that sense, the study of the cooperative model must be considered as a valuable solution, and not just the one for private competitive enterprises.

The Canadian government is planning to legalize possession and consumption of cannabis for recreational use. The Prime Ministers of Canada, Justin Trudeau hopes that this will help protect kids and communities and make the state profit from the billions of dollars a year witch presently end up in the organized crime and street gangs pockets.

According to Canada’s health minister, Jane Philpott, a law project will be put forth in the spring of 2017. In order to achieve this, an operational and regulatory framework must quickly be produced. To this end, a task force is conducting a countrywide consultation to gather the population’s points of views on the legal system and the regulations that must be implemented for the access to marihuana.

We wish to participate in this great consultation by proposing the solidarity cooperative model for the production and distribution of cannabis. We consider this model to be the most appropriate and we hope to get your support with that proposition.

1. We believe the solidarity cooperative model is better equipped to respond to the needs and interests of the population.

A cooperative is a group of people exploiting an enterprise in accordance with the cooperative’s rules and who’s objective is the satisfaction of members. 

A solidarity cooperative has at least two types of members the most common ones being workers and users. The members are the owners. It has for purpose to provide well paid jobs to its “working” members and provide affordable goods of a high quality to its “using” members. The Profit is used to cover the investments costs, to fund the enterprise’s future expansion, and comes back to its members in the form of refunds.

By adopting this model, we avoid the risk of seeing the market being monopolized by large companies who’s prime objectives are the pursuit of maximal profit without any concern for the environment, the employees or the customers.

2. We believe that the cooperative model would facilitate the establishment of solutions to the risks for the welfare of customers by the federal government.  

A solidarity cooperative’s objective is not limited to its economic interests. It necessarily rests on social values. The education and the welfare of its members and of the society as a whole are at the hearth of the principle of solidarity. The position of this type of cooperative can only be in favor of the establishment of protective measures for the public’s health witch are based on scientific facts and full of compassion. For promotion, by adopting the solidarity cooperative model, it will be possible to reach a large number of people concerned with the health issues tied to the consumption of marihuana. In that context, a solidarity cooperative’s values inevitably favor a responsible consumption for its members.

Promotion for cannabis, with profit as the only goal, will have the pervasive effect of increasing the risk of abusive consumption. Otherwise, promotion by a solidarity cooperative will be more susceptible to reflect the government’s preventive measures to minimize that risk for its members.    

3. We believe that the cooperative model will facilitate the establishment, by the federal government, of solutions for the risks posed to public security.

A cooperative is a privileged place for democratic blossoming since every member is part of the decision process in the enterprise (the principal is 1 member= 1 vote). It values transparency and is open to partnership.

By adopting the solidarity cooperative model, the application of security measures aiming at the elimination of marihuana’s black market will be facilitated. Consequently, the supervision costs of its activities by the government could be diminished.